Some People

Some people are not the sharpest crayons in the crayon box, if you know what I mean. They need to think about what they are going to say before they say it. For example in chapter 11 in Amusing Ourselves To Death, Ms. Ellen Babcock and her family participate in the "TV Turnoff" in Farmington, Connecticut. The whole point is to not watch television for a month. The last one held was widely covered by the media. Ms. Babcock says, "It will be interesting to see if the impact is the same this year as last year, when we had terrific media coverage." She doesn't understand the irony in what she said. She wants people to watch TV so they will stop watching TV. And then how people want Postman to go on TV to promote his book and ideas. Again that would be going against what he had been saying in his book.

Why can't people watch TV? I think it is fine to watch in small quantities. I agree with saying people who sit around and watch TV all day are lazy. I would even say that they are losers. But if thats what they want to do then so be it. But they are not contributing to the world in any way. To media, yes, but not to the actual world or anything important, hence the name loser. Some of the shows on TV are educational and not just for entertainment. Like the Discovery channel. Those shows don't always have music in the background for entertainment and you actuelly learn things. I also love watching the show How Its Made. It goes to factories and teaches you how things are made and it's really cool. Okay maybe that's not the best example of an educational show but it's interesting.

One of the reasons my 5 year old brother is so smart is from watching TV. Well plus constantly being read to, and reading himself. I believe TV had a big part in making him speak sooner than other kids. The whole thing Postman says about kids expecting to learn with entertainment is pretty much true. But in my brothers case TV helped him get far ahead of other kids his age.

So I think TV is good and bad and I don't think it should be ignored all of the time. Just probably most of the time.