Sesame Street Chapter 1 Summary

Television has been criticized as “a vast cultural wasteland”. Tv is supposed to be something that people use for fun and entertainment not a way to get away from your problems. Now with that being said this quote is trying to say that tv is useless. I think the reason that some people think that tv is useless is because of shows like SpongeBob and family guy. Sponge bob is a very popular kids show that has been around for years but doesn’t benefit the people watching it in anyway. In fact, watching a cartoon like SpongeBob can damaged the mind of many people and children with the stupidity that’s done on the show. Then you have a show like family guy where the things done can be called stupid but at the same time the things done are realistic but the only problem with a show like that is that it’s very inappropriate for kids to watch because of all the inappropriate behavior and violence that that is shown in a show like that. Another problem with tv isn’t the tv it’s the people. The shows are there to watch and to enjoy but it’s up to the person to watch it or the parent to allow their child to watch that. I don’t think that tv is a vast cultural wasteland because there are many different thins to see and watch and learn you just have to watch the right shows and use the right channels. Sometimes watching tv can even be fundamental.

found, for example, that only 3.5 percent of viewers were able to answer successfully twelve true/false questions concerning two thirty-second segments of commercial…”(Postman 152). Postman goes in depth of this experiment which established that Stern had found that 51 percent of viewers could not recall any news from watching the t.v. program. Around an average of 20 percent could not recall any information from watching a 1 hour show . This supports his claim of television being a disruptive resource. Watching television doesn’t increasing learning like a printed

Secondly, there was a level of criticism brought against television from people who feared that television could, “have an array of devastating effects on family relationship and the efficient functioning of the household.” (Edgerton, p. 94) Also, educators were concerned on children’s increased time watching television. Educators argued that children had to pay full attention to the television, and this took them away from important tasks such as homework. Television response to this was to make television into the daily habit.

Television is incorporated into my daily routine whether it is watching the news in the morning or a movie at night. When I watch the news in the morning I catch up on current events and other news. On the other hand. At night I watch movies for entertainment and enjoyment. Television is not just changing people into couch potatoes by watching “chasing fast cars, drinking lite beer, shooting each other t close range, etc.”, it also can be a daily tool to learn new things and catch up on current events.

Postman made it clear that his book is not an attack on the television itself. Instead he asserted that, supplied by the television's form, it is the change in the definition of how we learn, and thus perceive, the world around us that is under his criticism. When it comes to entertainment, Postman admitted that the television does an excellent job. "Television [...] serves us most usefully when presenting junk-entertainment; it serves us most ill when it co-opts serious modes of discourse-news, politics, science, education, commerce, religion-and turns them into entertainment packages" (159). The television does not require viewers to carry thoughts from minute to minute, and their eyes are never unstimulated, as the average duration of a camera view is a mere 3.5 seconds (86). Such brevity of thought and picture are a drastic difference from the way we used to get our information. That is, through the monopoly of the print media. Then contiguous information, uninterrupted by advertisements and thoughts not spliced into sentence-long segments, was expressed from cover to cover. Now, the kind of information (or misinformation) we are accustomed to receiving via the television set is redefining the way we receive and perceive information. It is not

Rather instead we are actually left with the author’s notion television is not yet a fully utilized tool. Through the use of these rhetorical strategies the author has created a convincing argument against a widely held belief of the general public, effectively evoking critical thought unto the public and possibly even changing the view in whole. Even though these strategies alone do not make an argument, when used in order to support one you canget a very effective persuasive, even informative, piece like the one presented

It became clear that in order to form a sound, functional democracy, education was most essential. Every citizen, although at the time only males could be citizens, needed to have some form of education. What was it that the citizen was to learn while in school? It became clear that education itself consisted of literacy, knowledge, research and the understanding of the Bill of Rights; those are what would make democracy succeed (Barber 416). Education as it was understood not only consisted of the basics, but also consisted of the government and rights. The importance of knowledge of government was not underestimated. He described the tuning point in education as the industrial revolution. Barber says “We have watch this commercialization and privatization, a distortion of the education mission and its content, going to the heart of our schools themselves.” (417). He is arguing that devices and television programs have become diluted with advertisements and that, with programs like Channel One, they have begun to affect education in schools. Tannen, on the other hand, argues that education and its present forms gained traction with the Greeks and continued through the middle ages. She tells how young men left home to attend institutions of higher learning. Through their experiences she says, “students at these institutions were trained not to discover the truth but to argue either side of

Chapter Eight: Democracy Basically reiterating some themes from his chapter on language and also highlighting the works of Rousseau and Tocqueville, Postman emphasizes that we should acknowledge that democracy is an idea that is ever- changing. He also examines the effects of TV and other technological advances on the public's view of democracy. Chapter Nine: Education Postman criticizes modern American concepts of education, claiming that the "facts", "history", and "critical thinking" that is encouraged in schools does not allow for our children to be fully educated. Postman offers five suggestions for a complete reform of American schools, including courses in questioning,

In modern day, television is very prominent in many people’s lives. This brings attention to the question of whether or not watching television makes you smarter. Some argue that because of complex shows such as 24, the culture is getting “more cognitively demanding, not less” (278). However, some believe that mass culture “follows a path declining steadily toward lowest-common-denominator standards, presumably because the ‘masses’ want dumb, simple pleasures and big media companies try to give the masses what they want” (278). In Steven Johnson’s article, Watching TV Makes You Smarter, he asserts that exactly what his title suggests. He believes this because of something he calls the Sleeper Curve. The Sleeper Curve is the concept of cognitive intricacy improving due to mass media influences. Johnson does an exceptional job at convincing myself and other readers that watching television can, in fact, make you smarter. He does this by using the rhetorical features such as presenting dissenting opinions fairly, using relevant examples, and using personal pronouns.

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 exorbitant exposure to the popular media both dumbs us down as well as makes us more likely to tolerate acts of violence. Dana Stevens’ “Thinking Outside the Idiot Box” argues that television does not make you smarter, directly

     But, for most part, author feel television is 'drug'; that is corrupting today's society. Many of us fail to recognize how it has caused the decline of family rituals, the avoidance of relationships and the destruction of the family. Our addiction to this daily habit cause us to escape the real world.

“What is television? What kinds of conversations does it permit? What are intellectual tendencies it encourages? What sort of culture does it produce?” (84) are a few of the questions Postman tries to address throughout the remainder of the book. He wants us to think of television as a medium rather than technology. Postman points out that we do not use television as a communication device, but as an entertainment device. The message of the material has been lost and the entrainment value has become what’s important. Because television is about visuals, it must be rapidly stimulating compared to a book where rational thought is being strategically laid

To begin with we will look at the issue of how modern TV can enlighten the audience. The author Stephen Johnson makes the argument of how TV is more complex, therefore it makes you smarter, in his article “Watching TV

Something that I would want to advocate to my students is that all media presented to them has the potential teach important lessons; whether it would be

If parents restrict their children in only watching educational shows rather than violence, the influence of children would rather be more useful and not corrupted.