Television: The Plug-In Drug

I arrive home about 4:30 in the afternoon after school. I march my way into my younger brother’s room to ask him if he wants to play a little catch in the side yard (baseball season starts in two weeks after all). Upon asking, the answer I get is, “No, I don’t really feel like it today. Maybe another time.” Normally, I wouldn’t think this is a big deal, but the same scenario happened every time I asked him to play catch with me. Why? Because he is too fixated on the computer and the video games he plays from the time he gets home until the time he goes to bed. Is it possible that we as humans can become so addicted to television and other electronics that we would let them become one of the most important aspects of our lives? After reading the essay written by Marie Winn titled “The Plug-In Drug”, I believe that it might be true for a large majority of us. In this day and age, people become so addicted to their television, computer, or their video games that they neglect their other responsibilities or tend to forget about the more important things in life. Television has taken control of our social lives in ways we don’t even realize. The statement, “The peer group has become television-oriented and much of the time children spend together is occupied by television viewing” (Winn 439), really does hold a lot of truth. When I hang out with my friends, what we watched on television always seems to find its way into the conversation. Many of them feel the same way I do about their televisions being on. No matter what I am doing, whether it be sitting and talking with friends or family, or working on my school work, the television needs to be on. Even if its only purpose is to create background noise while I work, or so that I’m not sitting in a quiet room with other people that I have nothing in common with. My only assumption as to why, is that when the TV is on, people within hearing distance get the feeling that something is happening, or somebody is talking