'Watching TV Makes You Smarter' By Steven Johnson

Improved Essays
“Watching TV Makes You Smarter” is an article that argues the unpopular opinion that watching TV may not be as bad for you as everyone thinks. Steven Johnson believes that depending on the show, TV can actually give your brain a good cognitive workout. He specifically believes that shows such as “24” and “The West Wing” that include complicated plots, make it so the viewer has to use their mind to understand what is happening in the episode. I can agree with this to a certain extent. TV now includes shows that are realistic, therefore they can also be educational. I myself, have gotten wrapped up into a TV series, and find myself realizing it’s 2 in the morning before I know it. The entire time my attention was strictly on this show, so much

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Rhetorically Analyzing a Controversial Matter Parents are often telling their children to “turn off the TV and go outside” due to the belief that TV does nothing to stimulate growth and development. Society agrees with the views of the common parent; television sedates the mind rather than engages it. Steven Johnson, a credited author, challenges this controversial topic, arguing that more complex TV shows actually require intellectual labour. However, the successfulness of Johnson’s argument can be rhetorically analyzed through his target audience and his use of mode, style, tone, and the three rhetorical appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos.…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One morning I was sitting in my English class when my teacher handed us a piece by Jerome Stern called “What They Learn in School”. I’m not a big reader so I wasn’t too thrilled about reading Stern’s poem. However, I did become curious once I read the first line. Stern began his poem by stating how “In the schools now, they want them to know all about marijuana, crack, heroin, and amphetamines, because then they won 't be interested in marijuana, crack, heroin, and amphetamines.”…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Television can offer an educational outlet that permits children and students to grow, develop, and broaden their…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “A Nation of Vidiots” is a synopsis of the growing consumption of televised programming within the United States and throughout the rest of the world. Jeffrey Sachs is the author of this writing; and in the writing the author goes into not only the consumption of television, but also the issues that said consumption is causing. Jeffrey Sachs states in this writing “in the 1950’s, fewer that 8% of American households owned a TV, but by 1960, 90% of homes had one” (441). Sachs talks about the fact that Americans are the highest consumers of television watching on average five hours of television per day (441). This writing uses the rhetorical triangle to influence the audience.…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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.…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are two writers who have done comparisons on this debatable topic and they are Steven Johnson and Dana Stevens. Steven Johnson, is an author who wrote five books and was published in the New York Times, he wrote the article “Watching TV Makes You Smarter.” His competitor, Dana Stevens, is a…

    • 227 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some shows do not benefit our minds in any way and can have a negative effect on people if television is watched for long periods of time. As kids get older, too much television can interfere with activities such as being physically active of playing with friends outside. A fact stated that children who spend more than four hours per day watching TV tend to be overweight in the long run. Another fact proven is that TV can influence drug and alcohol usage along with violence.…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Internet Vs. Books Nicolas Carr suggest that the internet is making people “scattered and superficial thinkers.” Everyone takes the internet for granted; it gives each person access to search whatever one wants to when one wants to. With the internet being something no one can live without anymore, it has slowly made people less intelligent.…

    • 358 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Robert Macneil Analysis

    • 207 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Robert MacNeil thinks Americans should spend less time watching television because television has a negative impact on us. He believes television has a negative impact on us because we can’t focus or do something for a long time. He thinks it is “decivilizing” and by saying that he means the format or television is harming the society. The kind of arguments he makes for this issue is 20 million Americans are not literate. He believes television “contributes and is an influence.”…

    • 207 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As with just about everything, there are both positive as well as negative aspects to consider when looking at the effect of television in American culture. It is true that television can be educational, entertaining and empowering. The media consumption in general and TV specifically, has grown with rapid fervor over the past 60 years thus, a uniquely symbiotic relationship between culture and TV was born. This relationship has been slowly cemented by the cultures dependence on media in general.…

    • 172 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It can also, have an impact on the cognitive process of youth. The cognitive process is vital, it shows the development mental effects of learning and behavior. In order for teens to understand how television can impact their cognitive ability, having an understanding…

    • 1363 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The article under analysis is "Critical Thinking? You Need Knowledge" by author Diane Ravitch. Ravitch presents the idea that for people need to learn to value knowledge as it's required to think critically and it's an important aspect for people to have. I, as a reader and critique, agree with her point that to further grasp anything we must learn about it first. Ravitch's Idea that "Thinking critically involves comparing and contrasting and synthesizing what one has learned."…

    • 1064 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Soma In Brave New World

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Our Modern Day Soma In Brave New World, author Aldous Huxley describes a drug called soma. Soma is taken by the majority of the World State’s population. This drug is often taken when someone is dealing with something “unpleasant”; it helps to relax them and keep them “happy”. However, soma has a dark side to it.…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    According to Roald Dahl, television stunts mind growth in children. After watching television, their thinking process is slowed making linking concepts and imaginative thinking far from their reach. Their worldview is limited to a box that dictates them on an ambiguous sense of right and wrong while they should be able to see the world through macro lenses taking everything into their account. In short, television is a hypnotizing machine imprinting its way of thinking on the viewers whether they realize it or not. Dahl also proposes an alternative to keep the children entertained which is reading.…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays