The Controversy over Watching TV Does watching television make a person smarter? Or does it make his or her intellectual abilities decrease? These are common questions many researchers are studying to find the answer to. In the article “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” by Steven Johnson, he explains and discusses the positive and negative effects watching television has on humanity. In many of Johnson’s reasoning and thoughts, he argues that watching television enhances society’s intellectual thought processes, but he also gives counterarguments for his statements. Altogether, I agree and disagree that watching more complex shows exercises parts of the brain, I agree that to keep up with entertainment now-a-days a person has to not only pay attention but make inferences, but I disagree when Johnson says violent dramas and videogames are nutritional for society. Watching a series of complex TV shows, or watching a movie that involves deep thought, has only positive benefits for a person’s brain. Johnson states, “Instead of a show’s violent or tawdry content, instead of wardrobe malfunctions or the F-word, the true test should be whether a given show engages or sedates the mind” (Johnson pg. 293). Johnson is explaining how certain television shows may have positive or negative effects on the mind; it all comes down to the type of show it is: if the show is complex or simple. Although I agree with Johnson up to a point, I cannot accept his overriding assumption that simply watching complex TV shows that engages the brain more will make a person smarter. I agree but also disagree with this thought. I agree that watching complex TV shows engages the brain to think harder, but I disagree that this makes a person smarter. Altogether, Johnson has a truthful and correct quote when he says complex shows has positive effects on the brain, it doesn’t make the person become magically smarter. TV shows nowadays are completely different than they were years ago; viewers actually have to be fully engaged to understand the situations and problems going on in the show. Johnson explains this by saying, “To keep up with entertainment like 24, you have to pay attention, make inferences, track shifting social relationships” (Johnson pg. 279). I agree that to keep up with entertainment a person has to pay attention while making inferences. I have learned this from my experiences watching certain crime shows.. Watching an episode of Scandal really makes the viewer take the details and put clues together; it makes them use their mind a lot more than watching an episode of Family Guy. Not only does society have to make inferences while watching TV shows nowadays, but they also have to continue to make inferences and put pieces together. Most shows leave the viewer with a cliffhanger. Altogether, when Johnson says that TV shows makes people think, I completely agree. A person who watches a TV show or a movie that involves violent or disturbing scenes gets no nutritional benefits from it. As Johnson states, “Video games and violent dramas and juvenile sitcoms- turn out to be nutritional after all” (Johnson pg. 279). By focusing on the nutritional benefits violent dramas and juvenile sitcoms have on individuals, Johnson overlooks the deeper problem of understanding these types of shows that fill watchers with nasty minds and wrong intellectual thoughts. I completely disagree with Johnson’s thought that violent shows have nutritional value. Watching these types of shows not only fills viewers with the wrong ideas, but also gives them ideas they may not have come up with before watching the show. All in all, I disagree with Johnson’s thought that violent shows enhance a person’s being.
In the article “Watching TV Makes You Smarter” by Steven Johnson, he discusses the benefits that watching tv has on the brain. He also gives few counterarguments in his article but shuts them down by coming up with more evidence and examples to prove his point. For example, when a person watches a television show like Scandal, is causes the viewer to automatically use his or her brain to put clues together and make inferences: making them smarter in some aspects. Altogether, I agree and disagree when Johnson says that watching TV works a part of the brain, I agree when Johnson explains to keep up with certain shows, a person must make inferences and use his or her brain, but I disagree when Johnson states that violent dramas and gruesome video games are nutritional for the human brain
Works Cited Steven Johnson. "Watching TV Makes You Smarter." They Say I Say With Readings. By Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. Ed. Russel Durst. 2E ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012. 277-294. Print