Television makes people stupid

Jeanie

Uncle Leo wrote:

Allright, I'll admit to a true guilty pleasure...Without a Trace. My wife likes it and I got into it.

Yeah, I watch Without A Trace from time to time too. You know coz it's full of Aussies!

I'd be the first to admit that I can watch mindless shit on tele and enjoy it. But I am enjoying a lot of more "serious" "non commercial" tele lately too.
Mostly though my message pit obsession has put an end to my tv addiction! :eek:

IDgotI

It might seem a little far out to drag Al Gore into this, but he has some really interesting stuff in his latest book "The assault on reason" about television. He cites scientific evidence that television triggers an "Orienting reflex" in people, the same sort of reflex that gets triggered in animals in the wilderness when they perceive movement with their peripheral vision. It causes us to focus a tremendous amount of "pre cerebral" or root instinctive brain activity paying attention to the motion in question ... to make sure it's not a predator in the brush.

Ok... remember, I'm just relaying something in a book... but it's a very interesting, and if true, mighty troubling notion. Basically he's arguing that on some level television taps into an instinct that makes it impossible, or at least counter instinctual for us to look away.

Unfotunately I do get caught up in the TV trap a lot after a day at work, but I try to combat it with DVDs and 'choice' of content. I spend a lot of time watching live music dvd's with Touring Band 2000, Live at the Garden, Live at the Showbox and Single Video Theory getting a lot of rotation.

surferdude

I gave up cable about ten years ago and watch no more than 3 hours of tv a week unless you count dvd's. I don't think tv makes people stupid.

Laziness makes people stupid. Too lazy too stay informed, too lazy to think critically, too lazy to give a fuck, to lazy to take any responsibility that should go hand in hand with all the rights we demand. To truly understand how lazy the average Norh American is just look how fat we are on average and how we try to blame this fatness on everyone but ourselves for this, some even try to blame the government.

Collin

TV has taught me a lot of stuff.

First of all it introduced me to the English language at an early age (my native language isn't English), which made it easier to study English. This is not something subjective, it's a fact when you hear a language and you hear it often you get start to recognize syntactic, idioms...

And secondly, you can learn a lot from TV if you're not lazy. I spent hours looking things up I heard on TV. For instance, I used to watch the Fresh Prince and Will Smith mentioned Malcolm X a couple of times, I found out everything I could about him (most of the information was in English, which made me grab the dictionary every three lines and by doing that I increased my vocabulary), I wanted to know about books people were mentioning on TV, more than once I consulted my world atlas because I wanted to see where a certain place was...

I heard about Edgar Allan Poe on TV and consequently went to the library to read his works.

As I grew older I started watching more serious programmes on National Geographic. Now we have Discovery Channel(s) and quite a few other informative channels. They introduce ideas. If I'm interested I study them further.

Also think about documentaries and movies like Hotel Rwanda.

My conclusion is TV doesn't necessarily make people stupid and it doesn't necessarily make them smart. It's there and you can use it any way you want or you can get rid of it.

Jeanie

surferdude wrote:

I gave up cable about ten years ago and watch no more than 3 hours of tv a week unless you count dvd's. I don't think tv makes people stupid.

Laziness makes people stupid. Too lazy too stay informed, too lazy to think critically, too lazy to give a fuck, to lazy to take any responsibility that should go hand in hand with all the rights we demand. To truly understand how lazy the average Norh American is just look how fat we are on average and how we try to blame this fatness on everyone but ourselves for this, some even try to blame the government.

Geez! :rolleyes: Have a hissy fit why don't ya?

Collin

surferdude wrote:

Laziness makes people stupid. Too lazy too stay informed, too lazy to think critically, too lazy to give a fuck, to lazy to take any responsibility that should go hand in hand with all the rights we demand.

Exactly.

g under p

Television the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation....Michael Franti

I often wonder if it's better to have my child watch the little tv she does or use her computer? I would have to choose the computer cause she a wizard on there for a 11 yr old. She helps me out when I run into problems I can't solve.

The Science Channel is her thing she wnats to be an astronaut.

Peace

surferdude

Jeanie wrote:

Geez! :rolleyes: Have a hissy fit why don't ya?

Well it's Friday, the sun is shining and I'm at work. I think I deserve to have at least one hissy fit today. It's still almost nine hours until I get that first pitcher of beer and maintaining hope and optimism is tough.

Jeanie

surferdude wrote:

Well it's Friday, the sun is shining and I'm at work. I think I deserve to have at least one hissy fit today. It's still almost nine hours until I get that first pitcher of beer and maintaining hope and optimism is tough.

Fair enough! Makes a lot more sense knowing that!

jeffbr

Funny how some posters here talk about TV making one stupid, yet rely on YouTube for their edumacation. A little too ironic, dontcha think?

TV is what you let it be. I watch sports, news, history, cspan, etc... My son loved Animal Planet when he was younger, and Discovery Channel is one of his favorites now, along with Fox Soccer Channel. Both of my kids are 4.0 students. Both of them watch TV. Neither of them is stupid.

Just like with computers - garbage in/garbage out. TV can certainly dumb one down. But TV can also enlighten, teach and inform. BTW, I think YouTube can, too.

RolandTD20Kdrummer

jeffbr wrote:

Funny how some posters here talk about TV making one stupid, yet rely on YouTube for their edumacation. A little too ironic, dontcha think?

...and you pretend to know this how/why?

btw...whats an "edumacation"?...lol

Jeanie

RolandTD20Kdrummer wrote:

..btw...whats an "edumacation"?...lol

You don't say edumacation Roland? Gee I do! I've got no idea why but it's a great word!

jeffbr

RolandTD20Kdrummer wrote:

...and you pretend to know this how/why?

Pretend to know what? I do know, based on your posts, that you spend an considerable amount of time watching vids on the computer. Either that or you just link us to them without actually watching them.

RolandTD20Kdrummer wrote:

btw...whats an "edumacation"?...lol

Dat's how you be learnin'.

RolandTD20Kdrummer

jeffbr wrote:

Pretend to know what? I do know, based on your posts, that you spend an considerable amount of time watching vids on the computer. Either that or you just link us to them without actually watching them.



Dat's how you be learnin'.

I spend a lot time in front of the computer in general...that's how I be earnin'

Join some groups....pretty amazing the information and links people can share back and forth....saves a lot of time. You'd be surprised.

my2hands

stupid parents raise stupid children

that is not the television's fault

RolandTD20Kdrummer

"TV viewing and poor school performance

Only a handful of programs teach children important skills such as math, reading, science or problem solving. Most of the shows on television, including cartoons, are noneducational. More time spent watching these shows is linked with poorer school performance overall and decreased scores on standardized tests. This makes sense when you consider that more time spent in front of a television means less time spent on homework or having stimulating interactions with adults or other children. In addition, late-night TV watching tires kids out so that they can't pay attention in school. Also, television hands kids all the answers, promoting passive learning and short attention spans. As a result, kids have difficulty concentrating and working hard to solve a problem. "

http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9908/20/kids.tv.effects/

"Mind Deterioration.

When you watch TV, you’ll find that it does all the work FOR you. You don’t need to “create” in your mind like you do when reading. When you read, your brain has to use its imagination to come up with the smells, the tastes, the sounds, the pictures, and the feelings described in the book or article but when you watch TV, all of that is already done for you (at least the hearing and seeing part). If you ever wonder why your brain feels so “empty” after watching television, that’s exactly why. Your brain shuts off because it has no job to do. "

g under p

g under p wrote:

Television the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation....Michael Franti

I often wonder if it's better to have my child watch the little tv she does or use her computer? I would have to choose the computer cause she a wizard on there for a 11 yr old. She helps me out when I run into problems I can't solve.

The Science Channel is her thing she wnats to be an astronaut.

Peace

I just realized that I have more computers in my house than I do televisions. 4 computers-2 televisions (1 in the basement unplugged...oh one in the shed waiting for a yard sale). As far as for children television should be used in moderation educationally rather than a pacifer to keep them occupied.

Peace

melodious

g under p wrote:

Television the drug of the Nation
Breeding ignorance and feeding radiation....Michael Franti

I often wonder if it's better to have my child watch the little tv she does or use her computer? I would have to choose the computer cause she a wizard on there for a 11 yr old. She helps me out when I run into problems I can't solve.

The Science Channel is her thing she wnats to be an astronaut.

Peace

"Because the streets are alive...singing oombah..tell a neighbor tell a friend.....every flower's gotta right to be blooming..."

Good day to ya, GunderP!

and jammers!

Sending support and love from the sticks...

Derrick

One could argue the internet makes people stupid. One really doesn't have to remember anything anymore...it's all here on the web. When Einstein said he would never remember his phone number since it was in the phone book...the internet is like the overdrive version of that quote.

I watch TV to be entertained. If I don't like what I'm watching I turn it off. I've gone 2 years without really watching TV.

Ahnimus

IDgotI wrote:

It might seem a little far out to drag Al Gore into this, but he has some really interesting stuff in his latest book "The assault on reason" about television. He cites scientific evidence that television triggers an "Orienting reflex" in people, the same sort of reflex that gets triggered in animals in the wilderness when they perceive movement with their peripheral vision. It causes us to focus a tremendous amount of "pre cerebral" or root instinctive brain activity paying attention to the motion in question ... to make sure it's not a predator in the brush.

Ok... remember, I'm just relaying something in a book... but it's a very interesting, and if true, mighty troubling notion. Basically he's arguing that on some level television taps into an instinct that makes it impossible, or at least counter instinctual for us to look away.

Unfotunately I do get caught up in the TV trap a lot after a day at work, but I try to combat it with DVDs and 'choice' of content. I spend a lot of time watching live music dvd's with Touring Band 2000, Live at the Garden, Live at the Showbox and Single Video Theory getting a lot of rotation.

I started to notice this when I was a teenager. I quit watching TV at 16, and when I would visit someone that had the TV on I couldn't not look at it. It always stole my attention, as hard as I tried to look away, the minute I lost focus I'd turn to look at it again.