`The Plug-In drug:television, computers, and family life` by Marie Winn. Chapter 1 report

The Plug-In Drug

It`s not so much a matter of what happens when one watches , but what does NOT happen during those hours spent before the screen (7 . This is a key point that Winn raises and addresses throughout her book . To argue that television in itself is bad is fallacious reasoning Television is not inherently bad . The TV itself can do no actual physical harm to anyone (unless it should fall on someone , in which case that it also not the TV 's fault . It is the way in which the television

br is used in our society that makes it such a powerful social drug

This can be seen in how children interact with each other and their elders : their social skills become stunted as a result of lack of interaction , both with adults and with other children . Their levels of creativity also suffer , as well as their ability to think for themselves , because they become so accustomed to being spoonfed all of their thoughts that they lack the ability to do it themselves . This will have a monumental impact on their ability to interact socially and think independently into their adulthood , because it is at the critical age of childhood that people learn these crucial skills . If the television stunts this development in childhood , it will have reverberating effects throughout adulthood

The television seems like such a common , harmless object that many people , especially parents , don 't see how it could have such long-term negative side effects . These are the parents who might allow the television to act as babysitter ' just so they themselves can seek some reprieve , or who argue that they only allow their children to watch educational ' shows . In truth all that is being accomplished by this mentality is creating generations which are electronically dependent for all thought and socialization - and I don 't think many people would argue that the programs on the television are probably not the best from which to learn how to appropriately interact socially or morally (an hour 's worth of MTV 's Real World or any of the countless get-laid-get-paid mentality reality shows or the shows that exalt only the lives of the rich , famous , and reckless can attest fully to that

Jokes are often made by people today that the media controls all thought and has created a society of blind , dumb cattle - ironically these same people making the jokes oftentimes fall into that same category themselves - and the truth is , well , yes it has , and we have allowed it . In 60 years ' time the television has become such a dominant means of social entertainment /replacement that nowadays when someone says they don 't own a TV (someone who would be of the means to have one that is , we balk at the idea . It just seems to unnatural to us . We have allowed an object that is so inherently harmless as a television to come to run our lives , and yet we fail to perceive the real...