Television Makes You Smarter, Right?

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the effects of television on its viewers' minds, and the fact that although plenty of educational programming is available, there are still many shows that have no intellectual benefit at all. The writer describes a few of these, including reality TV shows and music videos, and then describes some which are educational for children, such as "Dora the Explorer" and "Sesame Street," and some which are educational for adults only, such as "South Park." The paper concludes that if the right shows are viewed, television can stimulate the mind instead of deaden it.

From the Paper:

"Television is educational, but there are always going to be shows that have no educational benefit. Shows such as spongebob squarepants require no brain power to watch. The only point of these kinds of shows is to make us laugh or entertain us. In spongebob squarepants, a sponge that lives in the ocean goes on adventures that teach no moral values and nothing about the world we live in. When kids get addicted to a show like this, it takes time out of watching educational programming and does not assist in intellectual development. Their vocabulary does not increase either and kids may even learn words that do not exist in the English language. To maintain television watching as a positive activity on the brain, we must limit the amount of time we spend watching these kinds of shows. While this kind of show is addictive, it is unhealthy to kids and even adults."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Goolsbee, A. (2006, February Thursday). The Benefits of Bozo. Retrieved from www.slate.com: http://www.slate.com/id/2136372/
• Johnson, S. (2005). Watching TV Makes You Smarter. New York Times Magazine , 213-230.
• Literacy, C. F. (2007). MediaLit. Retrieved from www.medialit.org: http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/article119.html

More papers on Television Makes You Smarter, Right?:

• Analytical Essay # 32351 : "Yesterday Will Make You Cry"
• Book Review # 40332 : "13 Fatal Errors Managers Make and How You Can Avoid Them"
• Analytical Essay # 136359 : "Does Television Violence Make Children Violent?"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: