Watching TV Makes You Smarter

[ku]

I was reading http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/24/magazine/24TV.html?pagewanted=print&position= and wondered whether the benefits of TV are known well enough.

 

If you had children and deprived them of TV, what sort of behavioral damage would you expect? Would they be more like to become misfits?

[5614]

No.

 

Firstly that link, you have to subscribe to read it.

 

Secondly I know a few people who do not have a TV, they're normal kids!

 

Thirdly, whilst I have a TV and used to watch it quite a bit I don't much now-a-days because there's so much rubbish on it! They're not missing much.

[Lance]

Going outside with a group of friends would be 17 times more productive.

[RICHARDBATTY]

I am living proof that tv makes you dummer I watch loadsa tv.

[ku]

Yeah, of course watching too much TV can prevent you from doing other things like exercising, but if a child watches absolutely no TV while all the other kids around him do, then there are certain conventions and social customs that the kid who doesn't watch TV is deprive off. Don't you think?

 

In a way the TV tells people what is normal behavior.

[Lance]

What social customs does a child need that come from TV?

[5614]

None, but he gets to talk to his friends about the latest cartoons.... which is something to a kid... but not everything.

[-Demosthenes-]

No.

 

Firstly that link' date=' you have to subscribe to read it.

 

Secondly I know a few people who do not have a TV, they're normal kids!

 

Thirdly, whilst I have a TV and used to watch it quite a bit I don't much now-a-days because there's so much rubbish on it! They're not missing much.[/quote']

Its free to register, but heres the jist of it:

...to keep up with entertainment like ''24,'' you have to pay attention, make inferences, track shifting social relationships...

Think of the cognitive benefits conventionally ascribed to reading: attention, patience, retention, the parsing of narrative threads. Over the last half-century, programming on TV has increased the demands it places on precisely these mental faculties. This growing complexity involves three primary elements: multiple threading, flashing arrows and social networks...

Think of the cognitive benefits conventionally ascribed to reading: attention, patience, retention, the parsing of narrative threads. Over the last half-century, programming on TV has increased the demands it places on precisely these mental faculties. This growing complexity involves three primary elements: multiple threading, flashing arrows and social networks...

they forget to mention how awful most television programming was during much of that decade. If you're going to look at pop-culture trends, you have to compare apples to apples, or in this case, lemons to lemons. The relevant comparison is not between ''Joe Millionaire'' and ''MASH''; it's between ''Joe Millionaire'' and ''The Newlywed Game,'' or between ''Survivor'' and ''The Love Boat.''...

[Christ slave]

T.V. doesn't tell anyone what is normal behavior. To tell people to follow this trend of logic would be along the same lines of Nazis following other Nazis and Hitler. In essence, T.V. creates stupid, lie-filled shows which limit the expression of a child if indulged too much.

 

A lot of shows make up false humor, using laugh-tracks to trick people into following their train of thought and make it appear as if other people should laugh at the stupid things that the creators want to be funny. It's brainwash and mind-control, and, also, using scripted shows and movies for entertainment is also illusionary and deceitful.

 

When one watches T.V. truthfully, by recognizing that the performers and things are scripted and it's all just a job, you find that T.V. shows are in the entertaining sense nothing more than watching someone on the job--unless you want to become a performer, I wouldn't advise indulging in illusions.

 

Lots of these shows are why children are afraid of the dark, why people are afraid to go outside, why people act abnormal, why people are confused, etc. It's like contrasting a desert to a tropical forest...why would anyone learn how to live in a desert unless they're attempting to go to the desert or get involved in that desert in productive ways? Likewise, people must be educated before using a T.V., I believe--teach them to understand that they're a camera man moving the camera around, that there are several cameras, that the people on the T.V. are doing a job, that they are following the cameras around because they get paid to do it, not because it's a normal thing to be the center of attention and a show-off, etc.

 

The time-frames are all mixedup as well, and there's lots of editing. T.V. can really do damage to people's psyches if they simply use it to feed them like gluttonous pigs. It's an interactive experience whereby the viewer must truly stick to the truth and not allow theirselves to be swept away by the programming. A lot of people may appear "lazy" simply because they have a false/illusionary view on life--they believe the lies T.V. spits out (be it the entire programming or the message it sends).

 

It's hardly even entertaining when somebody realizes just how fake most of it is...and it's truly a business, as well. Children grow up respecting actors and actresses, believing the whole fake, painted-pretty face routines and all the "quality" of T.V., as it's a pick and choose world...and, if you analyse that sentence, it's clear to see just why unless you're watching something educational and not meant to be overly-entertaining, it's more or less destructive to allow anyone to fall into the illusionary world.

 

It's scripted junk and speciail effects...and a lot of it is meant to control and manipulate people in order to put food on the creators' tables.

[Phi for All]

if a child watches absolutely no TV while all the other kids around him do, then there are certain conventions and social customs that the kid who doesn't watch TV is deprive off. Don't you think?

I think anything that parents deny wholesale to their children is likely to become a focus of hostility. Humans don't like being denied anything. If I told you you can have anything except the privilege of watching a certain TV show, that's the show you're going to be the most curious about. And if I continue to deny it to you after repeated requests to watch it, eventually you will resent me.

 

I also think most of TV is garbage. I grew up with TV but I am very picky about what I watch. I only watch maybe 4 hours a week so I choose carefully, tape the good stuff and fast forward during commercials.

 

They mentioned 24 in the article and I love that show for its complexity, but only because a buddy buys the DVDs and loans them to me, so I watch them sans commercials and I don't have to wait a week between episodes.

[In My Memory]

Watching TV Makes You Smarter

Checking email makes you dumber.

 

(Just kidding!)

[-Demosthenes-]

To tell people to follow this trend of logic would be along the same lines of Nazis following other Nazis and Hitler.

Why do people endlessly compare every to Nazis? What's so cool about 'em?

[Phi for All]

Why do people endlessly compare every to Nazis? What's so cool about 'em?

There's nothing cool about them, but in a debate they are considered the ultimate citation, which no one can refute.

 

See Godwin's Law.

[rakuenso]

Yeah' date=' of course watching too much TV can prevent you from doing other things like exercising, but if a child watches absolutely no TV while all the other kids around him do, then there are certain conventions and social customs that the kid who doesn't watch TV is deprive off. Don't you think?

 

In a way the TV tells people what is normal behavior.[/quote']

 

I'd have to agree that there's some truth to this statement, since sadly TV has become a major force when it comes to augmentating social skills. For example people always talk about TV shows during lunch and thus in a strange sense "bond" with each other. While, me, who almost never watches TV, gets left out of their crazed conversations

[Sayonara]

I am living proof that tv makes you dummer I watch loadsa tv.

Correlation != causation. You might just be dumb

[Chatha]

Don't know if it makes you smarter, but it sure makes you more informative. What and how to assimilate all that data is all up to you

[Lance]

Informative? On what?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I know someone who doesn't even get cable. Only 13 channels. She's just fine, and she's in the Talented program at our school.

[Fullmetal]

kid shows and cartoons make me smarter. everything else is faggety or full of bitches like mtv.