zIf you’re like me, you grew up with a mother who always told you to go outside or read a book instead of watching television which I was told rotted your brain. But maybe, our mothers were wrong. Maybe television IS good for you.
Man, this video is discriminatory to orphans. Sorry Bats.
Here in Canada, we spend on average 4 and a half hours reading books every week, which sounds pretty good, but not when compared to the 15 hours or more we spend a week watching televison. Both those numbers are from 2007, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the TV number has increased with the popularization of binge watching shows on netflix.
So, is all that TV really that bad for you?
Well, it’s certainly a lot better for you now than it used to be.
If you …show more content…
There are whole youtube series explaining the backstories of different game of thrones characters, dozens of articles exposing the different Easter Eggs in Dare Devil and shitty videos of people pointing out connections between Breaking Bad and the Walking Dead. Oh wait, that was me.
Lost was the first show to really capitalize on this increase of complexity in television narratives. Lost, if you haven’t seen it, is a drama about a group of plane crash survivors on an island, where the island itself is the mystery. They built the mystery with not only plot and character, but by constantly throwing in little details in the background of scenes, which lead to the fastest growing wikia to date.
The internet allowed for a community of people that was already there to come together to attempt to solve the mystery of the show. It was unheard of at the time, but now is rather commonplace.
Shows like the West Wing and the Wire were not only narratively complex, but they didn’t hold your hand with the content either. In the West Wing, characters use real political jargon, spoken a mile a minute, used to paint a scene of realism. You’re not meant to understand it, you’re supposed to be in the dark. In the Pilot for the west wing everyone keeps referring to POTUS, without actually explaining that POTUS is the President of the United States until right before the opening …show more content…
Television requires you to analyze and process information that comes at you very quickly and often subtly. If you’re reading a book and you get confused to can slow your pace or even go backwards.
And while anyone watching TV not on live TV can pause and rewind, it’s easier to go back and find page from chapter one a reread a specific line of dialogue, than it is to go back and find at what point in the episode a character said something specific in season 1.
And that’s just because of the difference in format, not content.
Television is making you smarter because you have to actively remember, track and analyze a multitude of different plotlines which are much more complex than the television your mother grew up with, and while tv may not be better for you than books, it’s certainly not worse. I mean 50 shades of grey is a thing guys. So next time your mother is telling you to read a book, tell her… well you should probably just read game of thrones, that book rocks.
Or just tell her to stop reading 50 shades of
Man, this video is discriminatory to orphans. Sorry Bats.
Here in Canada, we spend on average 4 and a half hours reading books every week, which sounds pretty good, but not when compared to the 15 hours or more we spend a week watching televison. Both those numbers are from 2007, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the TV number has increased with the popularization of binge watching shows on netflix.
So, is all that TV really that bad for you?
Well, it’s certainly a lot better for you now than it used to be.
If you …show more content…
There are whole youtube series explaining the backstories of different game of thrones characters, dozens of articles exposing the different Easter Eggs in Dare Devil and shitty videos of people pointing out connections between Breaking Bad and the Walking Dead. Oh wait, that was me.
Lost was the first show to really capitalize on this increase of complexity in television narratives. Lost, if you haven’t seen it, is a drama about a group of plane crash survivors on an island, where the island itself is the mystery. They built the mystery with not only plot and character, but by constantly throwing in little details in the background of scenes, which lead to the fastest growing wikia to date.
The internet allowed for a community of people that was already there to come together to attempt to solve the mystery of the show. It was unheard of at the time, but now is rather commonplace.
Shows like the West Wing and the Wire were not only narratively complex, but they didn’t hold your hand with the content either. In the West Wing, characters use real political jargon, spoken a mile a minute, used to paint a scene of realism. You’re not meant to understand it, you’re supposed to be in the dark. In the Pilot for the west wing everyone keeps referring to POTUS, without actually explaining that POTUS is the President of the United States until right before the opening …show more content…
Television requires you to analyze and process information that comes at you very quickly and often subtly. If you’re reading a book and you get confused to can slow your pace or even go backwards.
And while anyone watching TV not on live TV can pause and rewind, it’s easier to go back and find page from chapter one a reread a specific line of dialogue, than it is to go back and find at what point in the episode a character said something specific in season 1.
And that’s just because of the difference in format, not content.
Television is making you smarter because you have to actively remember, track and analyze a multitude of different plotlines which are much more complex than the television your mother grew up with, and while tv may not be better for you than books, it’s certainly not worse. I mean 50 shades of grey is a thing guys. So next time your mother is telling you to read a book, tell her… well you should probably just read game of thrones, that book rocks.
Or just tell her to stop reading 50 shades of