Not many people look beyond the statement that “T.V. is an idiot box” but writer Steven Johnson does and in result he makes you second guess your own opinion. Steven Johnson’s article Watching T.V. Makes you Smarter first appeared in the New York Times Magazine in 2005 it was an excerpt from his book Everything Bad is Good for You. In this article Johnson aims to convince his audience that certain video games, violent television dramas, and juvenile sitcoms can be beneficial to the human brain in the sense that it’s a “cognitive workout, not a series of life lessons” (279). While he may be the only one on this side Johnson’s use of personal anecdotes, organization, and word choice makes for appealing argument on a sensitive debate.…
Overuse at such a young age may be harmful to the brain. This begs the question: how does growing up in a media-reliant society affect younger generations? In today’s society, overuse of media has been linked to attention deficit disorder (ADD). Dimitri A. Chrisakis is an accomplished writer who works as a pediatrician and professor. He works as a principal investigator, his research…
This time could be used wisely to study or to do something productive. In the article, "Kids Still Getting Too Much 'Screen Time': CDC", author Amy Norton states, "In two national surveys of children aged 12 to 15 years, researches at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that nearly three-quarters spent at least two hours a day watching TV or using a computer." With the use of "Shut Down Your Screen Week", students would be able to fully focus and use their time in classes more efficiently. Based on research done by the the American Academy of Pediatrics, screen time was linked to obesity, higher blood pressure,…
Often times the screen is on channels such as, FOX News or FX, rather than an educational PBS or Nickelodeon. The mass medias ability to attract spectators for hours at a time, influence viewers to purchase products, and portray characters in roles based on stereotype and prejudice, are only a few of the negative affects the media demonstrates to children viewers who watch their screens religiously. Pediatrics & Child Health’s article wrote an article titled, Impact of Media Use on Children and Youth, which regarded their belief that extensive media exposure should be an issue discussed with a child’s Pediatrician. The article says “The influence of the media on the psychosocial development of children is profound. Thus, it is important for physicians to discuss with parents their child’s exposure to media and to provide guidance on age-appropriate use of all media, including television, radio, music, video games and the Internet.”…
In “TV’s Negative Influence on Kids Reaffirmed” by Jeffrey M. McCall, he warns parents that too much television is bad for your kids. McCall says that recent studies confirm that kids who are saturated with television are damaged in many ways. McCall also states that kids who absorb a lot of media whether it be television, video games, or the internet are less likely to do well in school, less well-adjusted socially, and more likely to be overweight than kids who are low users of media. A separate study at the University of North Carolina found 12- to 14-year olds who watched television with high sexual content were twice as likely to have intercourse by age sixteen. McCall argues that television is a cultural legitimizer for kids and teen…
With the leaps that technology has made, individuals’ reliance on screen technology has become so prevalent that it permeates all aspects of life, such as education and entertainment. Neuroplasticity is the theory that the brain is malleable and therefore adapts to environments and experiences in spite of disabilities, injuries, or old age (Doidge 2010). This allows screen technology to influence astuteness. Some scholars argue that screen technology positively affects cognitive skills, whereas others disagree. This essay will outline the debate of the positive and negative effects of screen technology on cognitive development.…
7 Simple Ways to Feed Your Brain and Be More Productive Our brains are amazing, biological machines that work tirelessly, day and night to help us preform even the simplest of tasks, such as breathing. The brain is responsible for many different, passive bodily function and is also the place where our feelings, thoughts, and memories reside. Could you imagine how frightening it would be if we even lost a little of our cognitive power?…
Television can have long lasting and detrimental effects on children and young adults. While entertaining, watching T.V. can cause negative effects on physical and cognitive health, decreasing children’s amount of physical activity and sometimes impede brain development. Behaviorally, some television shows promote aggressive behavior in children and reinforce stereotypes. When looking into television shows to observe, I decided to select T.V. shows I had watched when I was a child.…
Summary on “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” In “Watching TV Makes You Smarter,” author Steven Johnson explains how TV has changed throughout the years. This article was published in The New York Times Magazine in 2008, contains 18 pages, and is separated into four sections. It has references towards the author and diagrams that demonstrate threads. The purpose of “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” is to inform every adult and young adults who watch TV that watching shows can affect their minds.…
For this study, 384 infants age eight to 16 months, and 345 toddlers age 17 to 24 months, or more precise their parents, were chosen to participate (Zimmerman et al., 2007). The authors used the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) as well as the parents ' self-reports on viewing habits, duration of the latter, frequency of interaction with the children and other activities in order to assess the effect of media viewing on cognitive and vocabulary development. The indicators for language outcome were the number of words understood for infants and number of words spoken for toddlers (Zimmerman et al.,…
2.2.3. Peers Peers - Success in establishing friendships is a central issue in development during the early years and depends upon a child’s ability to develop an attitude of negotiation and reciprocity, to regulate emotions and control behaviour appropriately in relation to the peer group. However, simply being with other children is insufficient to create social competence. 2.2.4. Media Media - The result of several studies support the hypothesis that childhood television viewing may contribute to the development of attention problems and suggest that the effect may be long-lasting.…
“Watching TV Makes You Smarter” In the article, “Watching TV Makes You Smarter,” Steven Johnson claims that the progression of modern television series is making viewers smarter because of their complex plots and multi-threading techniques. I question Johnson’s statement because there is a difference between gaining knowledge and conditioning your brain by noticing techniques that are in television shows today. One gains knowledge by learning and being tested over different subject. Whereas, watching TV trains our brains to recognize the patterns that are embedded within the many plots and scenes in an episode.…
18 Nov. 2015. . Parkes, Alison, Helen Sweeting, Daniel Wright, and Marion Henderson. "Do Television and Electronic Games Predict Children ' S Psychosocial Adjustment? Longitudinal Research Using the UK Millennium Cohort Study."…
This refers to the amount of time not only spent watching TV but looking at computers, smart phones, and tablets.(Yilmaz) According an article published by BBC “on average a child 5 to 16 spends 6 hours a day in front of some sort of screen.” (Wakefield). This is one fourth of their entire day. This much time has been shown to affect the neuroplasticity, brain 's ability to alter its behavior based on new experience, especially on young people.…
Nowadays television has become a very important member in every family, and it has a big influence on kids. For adults, they do not have much time to spend on television. On the other hand, children usually spend a lot of time in front of screen. Unfortunately, they get influenced easily by it.…