Problems with television

Watch out with the television

The negative effects of television are huge. It is difficult to escape the influence of the television if you fit the statistical averages, by the age of 20 you willhave been exposed to at least 20,000 hours of television the only things that Americans do more than sleep or work is watch television. Calculate for a moment what could be done with even a part ofthose hours in 10,000 hours you could s have learned enough to become an astronomer or engineer.
The trouble with television is that it discourages concentration. Almost anything interesting andrewarding in life requires some constructive, consistently applied effort. Television encourages us to apply no effort it sells us instant gratification. It diverts us only to divert, to make thetime pass without pain. Televisions variety becomes a narcotic, not a stimulus. Its serial, kaleidoscopic exposures force us to follow its lead. The viewer is on a perpetual guided tour: thirty minutesat the museum, thirty at the cathedral , then back on the bus to the next attraction except on television, typically the spans allotted are on the order of minutes or seconds, and the chosen delightsare more often car crashes and people killing one another. In short a lot of television usurps one of the most precious of all human gifts the abilty to focus your attention yourself rather than justpassively surrender it capturing your attention and holding it is the prime motive of most television programming and enhances its role as a profitable adverstising vehicle. Programmers live inconstant fear of losing anyones attention. The surest way to avoid doing so is to keep everything brief, not to strain the attention of anyone but instead to provide constant stimulation through variety,novelty, action and movement . quite simple. Television operates on the appeal to the short attention span
It is simply the easiest way out but it was come to be regarded as a given, as inherent in...