Analysis Of The Worst Years Of Our Lives By Barbara Ehrenreich

While modern day television programs contain enjoyable or unrealistic material that makes the viewer seem like he/she is actually doing it in real life without having to lift a finger, they have transformed most modern day Americans into lazy technology absorbed individuals. In "The Worst Years Of Our Lives", Barbara Ehrenreich makes it evident that our modern day televisions do not correctly portray the negative transformation of the American people through her use of comparisons, descriptive details, and figurative language. Ehrenreich notes that these fantasy-driven activities (chasing fast cars, drinking lite beer, shooting each other at close range, etc.) give the illusion that the viewers are actually performing these tasks in real life without having to actually give

There are many people who dislike television because of its addictive quality. They deem it unhealthy and time consuming. One of the people who argue this is Barbara Ehrenreich, which can be seen in the passage taken from The Worst Years of Our Lives. Throughout this passage, Ehrenreich explains in great detail how unhealthy television is and she includes a paragraph explaining how the people being shown on t.v. never do the things that normal humans do, yet that is the point of television.

In the passage, The Worst Years of Our Lives, Barbara Ehrenreich makes a broad assertion that television is turning Americans into couch potatoes. There are lazy people, but it is due to their lifestyle, not because they watch TV. Ehrenreich gives the TV too much credit and power for the couch potato phenomenon. Clearly, the blame for this must fall on the individual sitting on the couch. Personal responsibility, work ethic, and self-motivation are the problems, not TV.

The world is not a replica of what is portrayed on television, and it was never proclaimed to be, however, Barbara Ehrenreich advocates “The worst years of our lives” which reflects the 1980’s in which is believed couch potatoes did not exist, yet. Ehrenreich implies the idea that modern people aren’t “real people” anymore, as they would be in the 1980’s era because they actually performed the activities presented on television. To a certain extent, I concede with Ehrenreich’s theory, because Americans have become inactive, the youth generations are being brainwashed, and we portray ourselves to the virtual world.

In today’s society, people often choose to watch T.V. over other activities. They read less, spend less time outside, and spend less time interacting with their family and friends. People often eat their meals while watching T.V. One research study done by The National Endowment for the Arts and reported in Information Please Database showed some alarming trends: People age 15-24 spend 1hour and 57 minutes each weekday watching T.V., people age 35-44 spend 1 hour and 53 minutes each weekday watching T.V., and people age 55-64 spend 2 hours and 35 minutes each weekday watching T.V. All of these age groups spent even more time viewing T.V. on the weekends than they did during the week. This study shows that people spend a great deal of time “vegetating” in front of a T.V. screen rather than interacting with others or using their minds to think.

In the essay "The Worst Years of Our Lives", Barbara Ehrenreich claims that television is having a negative impact on its viewers and turning them into a type of root vegetable, potatoes. Ehrenreich claims that television is suppose to show what people do everyday, but it does show what people do most on a daily basis, which is watching television. She does not take into consideration that most people have self-control and knows how to balance work and rest time. Also, watching television just to watch people watching television doesn't make much sense. People keep watching television to have a few minutes to themselves where they are able to drift away from reality and step into a world that they are not familiar with to relax.

• People communicate so job the job can be done properly, by communicating this can also improve relationship and promote team work. At work I speak to my colleagues during work so the job can be done easily and efficiently. I think that speaking during working hours can improve working relationship and promote team work. I also speak to the clients during work hours so I will know if they need any help or assistance. By speaking to them I

According to Barbara Ehrenreich in The Worst Years of Our Lives, she discusses that television was consuming much of many of the individuals in the 80’s time. Television in the 80’s became a very addictive drug which produced a different reality. The amount of television used should be kept to a minimum and not be exceeded to where you would always need more.

In the book, The Worst Years of Our Lives, Barbara Ehrenreich describes the current American response to the modern television. She believes that television had changed overtime as over a decade ago, a majority of things shown on television were things people could do themselves. Today, however, television is full of violence, close-range shooting, racing, etc. This worries her because today's people are unable to do what they see on television and eventually become "couch potatoes" when they watch for hours at a time. Her belief is that there's no reason for a person to continue watching television due to the boredom and jealousy it causes.

Also people speak to each other to build confidence with each other and to be able to work in a workplace with lots of other people, you need to have the attributes to create conversations and discuss different scenarios.

Growing up we always hear people around us or in movies talk about a “mid-life crises,” and we’ve never really understood what they talk about because we hadn’t experienced it ourselves. In Gail Sheehy’s essay “Predictable Crises of Adulthood,” she writes about each a crisis that can occur in each stage of a human’s life. She break’s our lives into six stages. “Pulling Up Roots”, “Trying Twenties”, “Catch-30,” “Rooting and Extending”, “The Deadline Decade”, and “Renewal or Resignation”. I can’t relate to all but one of these topics because I have not lived them. The only stage I can relate to is Pulling Up Roots, because I just turned 18 and still learning about life. From my experience, Sheehy’s crises claim in the Pulling Up Roots stage is accurate for me.

Ehrenreich, in “The Worst Years of Our Lives,” talks about how we watch too much TV and how, “the force has transformed the American people into root vegetables,” and I mostly agree with her. It seems almost anytime I go over too a friend or family’s house, they have a TV on. In my own house, almost anytime my mom or brother is home the TV in the living room or his bedroom is on. Almost anytime we are doing something the TV is on. When we eat, the TV is on, when we talk about something, the TV is on.

Don’t watch too much TV it will fry your brain! We have all heard that phrase some time in our lives, but is it really true? The answer is yes TV does cause negative effects on the brain as well as the body. My paper will address the problem of too much screen time on the brain and how it causes health problems. If the amount of time spent in front of a screen is related to brain problems, then regulating the amount of time spent in front of screens will decrease brain damage because the most common cause for brain damage is due to low levels of well-being, limiting the amount of screen time can help reduce brain damage, and too much screen time can also cause obesity.

Some negative health outcomes are attributed to television. There is that of becoming the “couch potato”, many of us base television around our lives, and some of us get lazy and spend too much time watching television which can result in health problems. Not only is watching too much TV and being sedentary a bad thing, but the overwhelming amount of advertising and marketing that we see on television causes an increase in intake of a range of unhealthy products. Each hour per day increases the risk of developing diabetes by 3.4%. A variety of other potential behavioral and physical effects exist such as poorer social relationships, less

     Although Marie Win had her point, I tend to disagree that television is a bad influence on our lives. Television does not destroy family value; it is us who destroy family value. For example parents who have little or no time for their children often substitute television as a baby-sitter and parents blame television as child bad conduct. But it is parents who should to be blame for the child's bad behavior because not providing proper care and guide for the child. Parents should set limitation and boundaries for themselves to cope with the television addiction. Family matter should be their number one priority in family.