Robert Macneil The Trouble With Television Summary

In this piece, the author, Benjamin Radford’s main idea is that tv distorts reality. I would have to agree with this, and he really illustrates this in his first paragraph. When watching some sports channel, you would think that incredible touchdowns and home runs are a very normal and often occurrence at football and baseball games. However, if you attend these sports events, you can see that most of the game consists of running and throwing more than it does touchdowns or home runs. The truth is that they don’t happen every 2 minutes.

In the article, The Trouble with Television, Robert Macneil describes his viewpoint on the negative effects of television. He states that “by the age of 20, you will have watched 20,000 hours of television.” The author believes that we waste time that could be used to do more productive things. According to the article, in that time you could have “learned enough to become an astronomer or engineer or be fluent in several different languages.” Another opinion of the author is that Television is one of the main factors of illiteracy. He says that “some 30 million Americans are functionally illiterate, and cannot even understand the instructions on a medicine bottle.”

In the articles "The Box That Changed America" and "Television Transformed," the author elaborates on how the television has impacted American culture over time. One article directly gives information on how the TV impacts American children, and Americans. "The Box That Changed America" states that "Kids weren't playing outside as often. Commercials for cigarettes and junk food encouraged bad habits" (Tarshis 21). This shows that American's were becoming more attached to their televisions, leaving less time for other things, such as reading. It also shows that commercials could lead people into doing such things they wouldn't do normally. In the other article, the author writes about how new technology changes how Americans watch TV, and

In the article, The Trouble with Television by Robert Mac Neil, there is fantastic evidence and reasoning to support his claims that television is a negative influence on our society. For example, in paragraph 9 or 10, Mac Neil states, “One study estimates that some 30 million adult Americans are functionally illiterate and cannot read or write well enough to answer a want ad or understand the instructions on a medicine bottle.” This supports his claims that television contributes to illiteracy. Notice how I underlined contributes. The text states on the next paragraph, “While I would not be so simplistic as to suggest that television is the cause, I believe that it contributes and is an influence.” Keep that in mind as we look through

MacNeil says that television discourage concentration. He also states that anything remotely interesting and rewarding in life requires

Television has been keeping me entertained for as long as I can remember. I have always been a big fan of watching television such as shows, movies, and especially sports. For movies and shows, I love how it forces me to make me use my imagination even though in the back of my mind I know that everything that’s happening is completely fake. It’s caused me to think deeper about things I never thought I would think about, and given me a lot of great memories. Even though television has been a very positive part of my life, there has also been some downside to it as well. Television has affected me in a negative way because it paints a picture reality that sort of tricked me into thinking it was true. When I was younger I was extremely gullible and easily influenced and really wanted to be able to live like some of the characters that I saw on the screen. An example was in about 7th grade I started watching this hilarious show called How I Met Your Mother. My parents refused to let me watch it but I would always find a way to watch it on my laptop without them knowing. There was this character name Barney Stinson who I really admired and was determined to be like when I grew up. In the show he was rich, well dressed, ladies man who seemed to have everything going for him. He was a total hound dog in the show who expressed the joy of constantly going to bars, sleeping with random women, and then never calling

The first reason tv and other types of media is so toxic to us is the amount of time we the average american spends on it is absolutely outrageous. A study was shown in this is your teen on screens that says that only 20% of teen and kids get the nine hours of sleep that are needed for that age and 45% get less than 8 hours a night. This fact really shows how much time we

In “The Role of Television in American Life” by George Comstock, he talks about a very interesting reason as to why TV draws so many people, he states that is a form of escape from the viewers normal life, leaving them in a more enjoyable, relaxing state of mind. To add on to this, in the other reading, “McLuhan: It's All Going According to Marshall's Plan” by Mark Edmundson, he states that “McLuhan called TV the ultimate depth experience because the viewer had to participate fully in creating the image. From the three million dots per second on the screen,” which verifies the statements from George Comstock. On a person note, I can vouch for this 100%. Nothing is more relaxing that just sitting back and watching something on tv and just forgetting about the world around you, and I think people need that I their life. All work and no play leads to a unhappy lifestyle and thanks to the media medium of todays culture, I think we are enjoy life at it’s fullest at this point in

It’s like duct tape but there’s no goo when you take it off. Garner loves it.

The author also states that television can discourage concentration. The article says, “Almost anything interesting and rewarding in life requires some constructive, consistently applied effort.” Television encourages people to apply no effort. It catches attention very easily. For example, if someone

What can be the effect of television on people’s lives? People living in these days are addicted to watching TV. However, it is true that watching too much television makes people lose touch with the reality of their lives; they start to see the TV “world” as the real world instead of the world they are living in. This situation divides their loyalties, and all of this is controlled by the people who control the media. Many examples exist in the world that we live and in the world of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. For example, the way the media lies people proves that people are not in the “real” world when they are watching TV and being taught to what had been told to them. Or, people are hooked on television so much that they neglect and

     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.

According to Rita Dove, the author of “Loose Ends,” and “Television Addiction,” by Marie Winn. Both authors often share the same the views about television. But television addiction is more expressed in Ms. Winn’s essay. However, Ms. Dove speaks of a more personal experience with her daughter, and how the television is an issue in her household. Although, Ms.Dove says in her essay, “For years the following scene would play daily at our house: Home from school, my daughter would have her backpack off her shoulder and let it thud to the hall floor, then jump her jacket on top of the pile” (Dove 503).

History of television and its influence on people lives. How did television revolutionize the world?

What is a television? Television is a system for transmitting visual images and sound that are reproduced on screens, chiefly to broadcast programs for entertainment, information, and education. Television has been around for a long time even before I was born, it was first called, ‘seeing by wireless’. It has been used for over 80 years and was considered as an extension of radio. Television has evolved from the past to the present, some examples of that is the size of t.v. are increasing & changing shapes, the type of transmitter network provided, and last of the visual images the television transmit. But as we move forward into the next generations we see that 98% of U.S. homes had at least 1 television set that were usually view for more than 7 hours a day. In the article “History of Television” by, Mitchell Stephens claims that the first electronic television was first successfully demonstrated in San Francisco on Sept 7, 1927 that the system was designed by a highschool student named Philo Taylor Farnsworth. Philo Taylor farnsworth began to conceive a system that would capture moving images in a form that could be coded onto radio waves and be transformed back into picture on a screen. This invention was the direct ancestor for modern television.