Tv Makes You Smarter Essay - 1430 Words

TV Makes You Smarter Everyday people watch some level of television. Whether it is the news, sports, a movie or a reality show, it is a pastime that people look forward to and/or come to rely on in their daily routine. There are some programs that have a lot of violence and perhaps should be watched minimally or by an appropriately aged audience. However, there are many other programs that do not have violence and actually educate us, working subconsciously, without us even knowing it. For this reason, watching television in moderation is not harmful and can be very educational. In the article â€Å"Watching TV Makes You Smarter† by Steven Johnson, he states that watching television will make you smarter. He goes on to mention that†¦show more content†¦Many of these programs have been around for a long time due to their ability to maintain high educational value and interest. Each of these shows has a unique way of educating children to help them prepare for school and everyday life situ ations. In an article launched by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 13, 2009 â€Å"R is for relevant: Sesame Street still balances fun and learning†, it speaks about the educational value of the program and how it has adjusted over time to stay relevant. Sesame Streets resident puppeteer, Jim Henson, designed a broad group of flawed, but lovable characters he called Muppets to interact with the shows human actors and guest stars who came in as many types and colors as the puppets themselves. Children all over the world learned to spell and count with Big Bird, Count von Count, Oscar the Grouch, Elmo, Cookie Monster, Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and Bert amp; Ernie. The program also explored topics that children experience in everyday life and help them to understand it better. For example, when the program first introduced African American actors into the program in 1969, it caused controversy so much that Mississippi refused to air the show for nearly two weeks. Over the years, the show has examined adult issues including divorce and death. In 2003, it introduced an HIV-positive Muppet. Because of Sesame Street, many American children get their first view of societal issues in a friendly, non-threateningShow MoreRelatedAre Tv Makes You Smarter?971 Words   |  4 PagesAre TV’s actually bad for you In the book They say I say, is an article called â€Å"Thinking outside the idiot box.† This essay was written by Dana Stevens and was first published in slates march 25, 2005 in a direct response to â€Å"Watching TV makes you smarter.† Within this article Stevens is completely disagreeing with Steven Johnson in the that she believes his entire article was a joke. Stevens opinion is that watching television does more harm than it could possibly do good for people. During DanaRead MoreWatching Tv Makes You Smarter967 Words   |  4 PagesWatching TV Makes You Smarter In his essay â€Å"Watching TV Makes You Smarter, Steven Johnson - an author specializing in media, pop culture and technology - claims that watching TV is actually healthy for the viewers mind as contemporary television requires more cognitive thinking than it did previously. Johnson supported his claim by explaining about his sleeper curve throughout the essay. â€Å"The most debased forms of mass diversion – video games, violent television dramas and juvenile sitcoms thatRead MoreWatching Tv Makes You Smarter1392 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"Watching TV Makes You Smarter† Steven Johnson argues that reality and informative television affects people in positive ways and that the idea of television making us brain dead is dependent upon the content. In comparison, the article â€Å"Thinking Outside the Idiot Box† by Dana Stevens, emphasizes the negative impacts of watching television, while Stevens would argue that television is rotting our brains. I believe th at she is not considering all the contributing factors. The impact that T.V. makes on ourRead MoreHow Tv Makes You Smarter1532 Words   |  7 Pages If they were to pause on one of these shows they might not know it but they would bettering themselves on a personal level. Based on the ideas of Steven Johnson the average person could learn a thing or two from reality TV. In his article called, â€Å"Watching TV Makes You Smarter† Johnson states that; For decades, weve worked under the assumption that mass culture follows a path declining steadily toward lowest-common-denominator standards, presumably because the masses want dumb, simple pleasuresRead MoreWatching Tv Makes You Smarter, By Steven Johnson898 Words   |  4 Pagesnot for many different reasons. In the first article â€Å"Watching TV Makes You Smarter, Steven Johnson argues why and how television can make you smarter. In another article, â€Å"Thinking Outside the Idiot Box, Dana Stevens contradicts everything Steven Johnson said in his article about television making people more intelligent. Steven Johnson s argument is that television can actually make you smarter because when you watch a show, you are trying to understand everything that is happening. Today’sRead MoreWatching Tv Makes You Smarter, By Steven Johnson872 Words   |  4 PagesIn the article â€Å"Watching TV Makes You Smarter, Steven Johnson argues why and how television can make you smarter. In another article, â€Å"Thinking Outside the Idiot Box, Dana Stevens contradicts everything Steven Johnson said in his article about television making people more intelligent. Steven Johnson s argument is that television can actually make you smarter because when you watch a show, you are trying to understand everything that is happening. Today’s shows have a lot of action and scenesRead MoreWatching Tv Makes You Smarter -Steven Johnson Essay4824 Words   |  20 PagesWatching TV Makes You Smarter By STEVEN JOHNSON The Sleeper Curve SCIENTIST A: Has he asked for anything special? SCIENTIST B: Yes, this morning for breakfast . . . he requested something called wheat germ, organic honey and tigers milk. SCIENTIST A: Oh, yes. Those were the charmed substances that some years ago were felt to contain life-preserving properties. SCIENTIST B: You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or . . . hot fudge? SCIENTIST A: Those were thoughtRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie Thinking Outside The Idiot Box By Dana Stevens And Watching Tv Makes You Smarter937 Words   |  4 Pagesslouch in front of this electrical box after a long day’s work, many of us don’t think or know about how much television programming has changed since our parent’s childhood. In â€Å"Thinking outside the Idiot Box† by Dana Stevens and â€Å"Watching TV Makes You Smarter† by Steven Johnson, both writers give their thoughts and opinions about how television programming has evolved over the last three decades. These gentlemen recognize that the days of slap-stick comedy were over and replace by more sophisticatedRead MoreThinking Outside the Idiot Box by Dana Stevens vs. â€Å"Watching TV Makes You Smarter† by Steven Johnson1125 Words   |  5 PagesEnglish Comp I Kayal 11/5/13 TV Does Not Make You Smarter There is no doubt that television holds a purpose in our society today, but is that purpose brain-numbing or actually beneficial to our brain development? The television, also known as: TV, the boob tube, the idiot box, as well as many other nicknames, has been around for almost a hundred years. Ever since cable TV became popular in the 1950’s, there has always been a worry that people watch too much TV. Most people believe that with exorbitantRead MoreCan Tv Be Making You Smarter?1444 Words   |  6 Pages Can Tv be Making You Smarter In Steven Johnson’s â€Å"Watching TV Makes You Smarter†, he argues the growing complexities of contemporary TV shows through time. Johnson explains, because of the developing intricacy of TV plot lines people are having to spend more time paying attention to the TV episodes. To show this, Johnson compared shows from the past and more recent shows to  display how on screen intelligence and off screen intelligence of shows have developed to become more challenging and realistic