Summary Of The Worst Years Of Our Lives By Barbara Ehrenreich

In the text, Gail Sheehy describes the difficulties, as well as freedom, which twenty-somethings are presented with when they enter the adult world.

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

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.

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.

In the novel Fahrenheit 451 people are more inclined to spend their time watching television than they are spending time with others as they believe that television can help fulfill their lives while books cannot. This is shown in the conversation that Mildred and Montag have, “‘Will you turn the parlor off?’ He asked. ‘That’s my family’”(pg. 48-49).

In “Life According to T.V.” written by Harry Waters and published in Newsweek in 1991, Waters examines the effect that television has on everyday lives. He says that TV has given Americans an unrealistic view of how life works. From jobs to minorities to how women are portrayed to crime rates nearly all aspects of TV are unrealistic or exaggerated. George Gerbner was used to back up Water’s theory on how television impacts people. Water states that heavy viewers of TV are more unrealistic in their view of the world than light viewers because they are exposed to more of the unrealistic ideas portrayed in TV shows than light viewers. The jobs on TV are often expressed as high ranking jobs like lawyers, doctors and athletes rather than blue collar or service jobs such as small businessman or teacher. According Waters the elderly are depicted as being sick and weak when they are actually the opposite. Women are also portrayed as mothers and lovers more often than successful working women.

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 providing some sort of compensation for the social atomization that it itself has contributed to , and thus , all the simulated conviviality , while being a pleasant “dream,” is “pure wish fulfillment,” indeed, rather “phony,” and, perhaps, sad”(315).

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.

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

     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.