Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Watching TV Makes You Smarter

Although I agree with Steven Johnson up to a certain point when he states that TV can make people smarter because it requires cognitive attention, I cannot accept his assumption that the modern reality TV shows help develop critical thinking. Sure the shows keep people guessing and trying to think outside the box by relating to everyday situations, but in the end, it's still just an entertainment channel with no useful information coming out of it unlike, for example, the History and the Discovery Channel. Our generation is being "dumbed" down by the overuse of technology and watching reality TV does not help that notion. Just because the structure of earlier reality TV changed from structured and explained to the mysterious TV to keep people watching in order to find out what happens next, does not mean it benefits people intellectually like he claims, the producers are making the shows strictly to make money, not educate their audience. So all in all, I'd have to disagree with his "Sleeper Curve" theory because letting young kids watch reality TV will never be as beneficial as doing their homework, they will have time to develop cognitively and intellectually on their own and shouldn't waste a lot of time watching reality TV for the greater good.

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