too much tv
English 100
11 August 2014
Too Much T.V?
Television is good for a lot of things. It is a great place to watch the news and be kept up to date on what is going on in the world. It is also a great way to be entertained and have a laugh watching the new episode of “The Big Bang Theory.” In addition, it is great to watch your favorite team play and hangout with your friends while you have a barbeque. It is also a way to distract your children while you get some time for yourself to relax. However, it does not make you smarter. Watching something on a screen will not replace watching it in real life. The viewer will not get an education by watching shows like “The Sopranos” or “24”, just like it will not make them dumber by watching shows like “Keeping up with the Kardashians.” Finally, it will not replace the fact that watching everything on a screen is not real life. While one can learn a great deal about what is going on in the world by watching the news on CNN or FOX or CBS, it is still important to try to get that same education in other forms like the newspaper, or the Internet. Getting everything you want from just one source is never good, and it is just too much T.V.
I love watching television, and I watch it a lot, probably more than I should. I love watching shows or the basketball game and losing myself in the excitement of a program. In addition, I like watching the news to learn what is going on in the world, what is going on domestically. For example I watch Netflix on rerun at night till I fall asleep or maybe I do it because I cannot sleep and I get bored. However, I have never felt smarter after I finished watching “The Big Bang Theory.” I may have felt in the past as though I have learned a thing or two, but do I feel smarter? Never. Steven Johnson argues that some television shows are so complex they make you “think” and make you smarter. For example he says that “you have to focus to follow the plot, and in focusing your exercising the parts of
11 August 2014
Too Much T.V?
Television is good for a lot of things. It is a great place to watch the news and be kept up to date on what is going on in the world. It is also a great way to be entertained and have a laugh watching the new episode of “The Big Bang Theory.” In addition, it is great to watch your favorite team play and hangout with your friends while you have a barbeque. It is also a way to distract your children while you get some time for yourself to relax. However, it does not make you smarter. Watching something on a screen will not replace watching it in real life. The viewer will not get an education by watching shows like “The Sopranos” or “24”, just like it will not make them dumber by watching shows like “Keeping up with the Kardashians.” Finally, it will not replace the fact that watching everything on a screen is not real life. While one can learn a great deal about what is going on in the world by watching the news on CNN or FOX or CBS, it is still important to try to get that same education in other forms like the newspaper, or the Internet. Getting everything you want from just one source is never good, and it is just too much T.V.
I love watching television, and I watch it a lot, probably more than I should. I love watching shows or the basketball game and losing myself in the excitement of a program. In addition, I like watching the news to learn what is going on in the world, what is going on domestically. For example I watch Netflix on rerun at night till I fall asleep or maybe I do it because I cannot sleep and I get bored. However, I have never felt smarter after I finished watching “The Big Bang Theory.” I may have felt in the past as though I have learned a thing or two, but do I feel smarter? Never. Steven Johnson argues that some television shows are so complex they make you “think” and make you smarter. For example he says that “you have to focus to follow the plot, and in focusing your exercising the parts of
Cited: Johnson, Steven. Watching TV Makes you smarter. Stevens, Dana. “Thinking Outside the Idiot Box.” They Say, I Say with Readings. Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2009. 277-294. Print. Peacocke, Antonia. Family Guy and Freud: Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious. They Say, I Say with Readings. Ed. Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2009. 294-311. Print.