In the article Watching TV Makes You Smarter by Steven Johnson, the author argues that by watching television shows various television shows, people actually become smarter and how it has a big impact in our lives. He feels that watching TV makes us smarter because why we view things we might have never heard of before. He also uses dialogs to explain for example he used dialogs from the show ER to break down what’s happening between the characters, what words and sentences there using. On response on Dana Stevens article she’s disagrees with Steven Johnson’s article about how TV makes you smarter. he says that not in all cases TV those not make you smart she describes your force to watch TV because its so addictive with the shows they give that it makes you want to watch it even more. She also gave her opinion on the show 24 because she describes how it portrays Muslims terrorist on that show for example she writes “Wait a minute isn’t a fictional program’s connection to real-life political events like torture and racial profiling one of the “social relationships” she feels its wrong to watch stuff that has to do with real life events.
She feels that sometimes watching TV is not the best thing to do. But as reading both articles I have to agree more with Steven Johnson the reason why being is because I do think TV does makes us smarter. Watching the news is being smart because it lets us know what’s happing around the world such as our community. It gives us in idea what where dealing with around the world. Also shows like Glee gives you another example of the lives of high school students and the conflicts between them and also how music plays a big role in there school.
As for kids I think TV does make them smarter the fact that they give shows like Barny, Dora, Bob the builder, and etc shows like these make kids learn the aspects of English they start to repeat words and start putting things together like puzzle, learn different types of animals, and learn how to solve little easy stuff. That’s why I agree with Steven Johnson because he breaks down how TV makes us smarter and uses dialogs to back up his statements.
As for Dana Stevens I think is just an opinion on her behave she feels that some stuff that they play on TV is bad for us but there were some stuff that she did agreed on with Steven Johnson On how in the past two decades the views on TV grew rapidly. But as reading both articles I like the way how both Arthurs broke down the benefits and non benefits of watching TV. I actually would recommend more people to watch more TV because they get a sense on what’s happing and give our brains a little more boost about human knowledge also.
In TV they give channels like the history channel and the Discover channel those are channels that could even more help us learn about nature. Does watching television makes you smarter? What makes good television? What is it about good television that can make you smarter? These are all questions I asked myself before reading the story, “Watching TV Makes You Smarter,” by Steven Johnson. He promotes that although watching mindless television is not going to be good for you, there is television that will make your mind think and force it to follow events throughout the show.
I agree with Johnson in a sense that the “right” television will increase brain activity and make people think while they are watching TV. Children and adolescents need to be exposed to “good” TV, because it will help them learn about social issues as they go through life. Good TV, according to Johnson, can be described as when, “you focus on the plot, and in focusing you’re exercising parts of your brain that map social networks, that fill in missing information, that connect multiple narrative threads,”(292).
When choosing shows to watch it is important that people pick shows were they have to engage and submerge themselves into the action. He also defines “good TV” with a basic criteria, “whether a given show engages or sedates the mind,” (293). I feel that this writing would have been more effective if Johnson had compared shows that were more recent. Although his article was post 2001, many people who read this article in the future are not going to know most of these shows. They only way I knew what most of these shows were is because I heard my parents and grandparents talk about them.
I believe that TV today is not as great as it was in the past, but there are still some educational shows that help develop the brain, deal with everyday social issues, and overall make people think. Changes scenes and using good information make the show worth watching. Watching the “right” TV can make everyone smarter. Shows like the news, CSI and Law and Order, mostly geared towards adults, Teen Mom and Glee deal with the social issues of teenagers & Between the Lions, Dora and Super Readers are all educational for very young children learning to read, write and speak.
Even though I feel that Johnson writing would have been more effective if he used more recent shows as examples, I agree that watching TV can make a person smarter and more aware of their social surroundings if they choose the “right” TV shows to watch. Many viewers can relate to some of the characters in some way and eventually care for them. The audience knows everything about the characters, and therefore, can have favorite characters and others that are not necessarily liked.
In may popular shows today, the setting is in a work environment. This is because much drama goes on at work. For example, my favorite television show is House, M. D. I particularly like this show because it is medically related and I learn a lot from this show, which has to do with my major, nursing. This show also causes people to exercise their brains and think critically. Every episode, there are one to two patients with different illnesses, etc, however, these patients do not reappear in the next episode.
The relationships the doctors Dr. House has on his team are intertwined and can be confusing at times. There is always more that one plot or story going on at a time, and the audience has to keep the “web” straight to follow the show. Furthermore, I believe that television shows can also help cognitive development in children. For example, shows such as Baby Einstein and Dora the Explorer teach children about the world around them as they are growing up.
Television should never be a punishment, but rather a reward for children and adults because it makes them more intelligent having to follow complex story lines. All in all, I agree with Stephen Johnson, and I believe that watching television makes people smarter and more intelligent. The new ways of television should be seen as an opportunity, not a crisis. Smart culture is something shared by kids and parents, and television shows can greatly increase cognitive thinking of children and adults.
