Blog Post 2

“Thinking Outside the Idiot Box” was an appropriate title to Danna Stevens response to Steve Johnson’s “ Watching TV Makes You Smarter”. Danna captures what most readers of Steven’s article were thinking. This is much to complicated and doesn’t offer a firm understanding of the subject. I agree with Danna because she feels the way that I do. Steven tried to invoke a feeling to nourishment through television, but I don’t feel that sense of nourishment while watching television at all. It is a choice to watch television and should not be analyzed or rediscovered to fit someone else’s ideas. Steven also states in his article that parents shouldn’t censor as much as find a program that creates a different pattern of thought. This is wrong because I feel if there isn’t censorship on what a child watches then that child should be able to watch any show he or she pleases without regard to the thought process any particular programming would provide.
Danna also talks about the problems there would be when watching certain shows like 24. This show does involve thinking to a certain degree but is not the best program for a child to watch. This is because of the controversy surrounding the program. The show 24 represents Middle Eastern people as the so called bad guy. This is unfair and would make the viewers opinion of a certain culture or people wrong. Not everyone can be judged by the actions of one individual.
It is much easier to follow Danna’s train of thought because she was understandable. Steve’s article left me and I’m sure much of the other readers stumped. If he felt that television was a good medium for children and even adults to stimulate brain function, then he should have suggested it in a different manner, as it applied to his audience.
In my life I feel that television has always been a choice. I’ve never really had much censorship. Choosing what I wanted to view was pleasing and in a way, let me become who I wanted to be. These choices should be left for a child to decide, to a certain degree. Although a child has his or her own mind, they can make the wrong choices and that is where a parent would come in, to guide the child and not control him or her.
Sometimes when I see the way some other children are being raised, I am astonished at how little they know. If a parent tried to keep their child in a so called box all of their life, then that child will not be prepared for what life has to offer. Everything in a child’s eyes should be as pleasant as possible, but that will not last for ever. To me this means, the sooner a child learns about life the better off they will be. Their brain stimulation should be left to school work, and not entertainment. Of course this does not mean that there are no programs that have no educational value, but those that do should not be enforced. This is because the nourishment Steve talked about becomes resentment and different views later in life.

Blog Post 2

I recently read an article by Steven Johnson entitled “Watching TV Makes You Smarter.”  In this article, Johnson explains his opinion on how watching TV, contrary to the general idea that TV makes you dumb, actually makes you smarter.  For the most part I agree with Johnson’s idea that TV makes you smarter, but I think it has more to do with what particular shows you are watching that make you smarter as opposed to TV in general.

I think that certain television shows can increase a person’s intelligence and some can have no effect on intelligence.  For examples, television shows like “How It’s Made,” “Modern Marvels,” “Build It Bigger,” and “The Universe,” all would increase a person’s intelligence because they are all shows that are aimed towards providing information to the viewer on a certain subject area.  “How It’s Made,” simply shows how certain things are made, such as hammer, garage doors, envelopes, golf balls, and much more.  Even though this isn’t all that exciting, I find it interesting how certain things are made and I think my intelligence is increased as a result.  The same goes for the other television shows I mentioned before, they all supply information, they are basically teaching a certain, and how can that not make you smarter?

On the other hand, television shows like “Family Guy,” “Burn Notice,” and “The Jersey Shore,” to name a few don’t increase the viewers intelligence.  These shows are made to provide entertainment not information.  I don’t feel smarter after watching “The Jersey Shore,” but I watch it anyway because I’m not watching the show in order to get smarter, I am watching it for entertainment.  The same goes for “Family Guy,” “Burn Notice,” and similar shows.  Now even though these shows don’t make us smarter, I certainly don’t think that they make us dumber.  I don’t think TV can make u dumb.  If all a person does is watch pointless television shows all day then that person may not gain any intelligence, but I don’t think they will lose any intelligence.

In conclusion, I agree with certain parts of Steven Johnson’s article entitled “Watching TV Makes You Smarter.”  I feel that informative shows can have a positive effect on a person’s intelligence level, while shows that are designed simply for pleasure and not information, such as a drama, a comedy or a horror show, have no effect on a person’s intelligence level, not a negative effect.