Here is your prompt for e-journal #7, due Tuesday, 10/19:
In a well-developed paragraph describe the negative effects that Winn sees in habitual TV watching. Does Gore agree with her sentiments? Do you? What are some ways in which these two authors’ arguments compare and/or contrast? Use at least one example from each of these two texts in your response.
Television is a modern marvel and ,speaking for myself, I couldn't imagine my life without it. Television is an anamite object simply used for two things either to retrieve and/or to relay information. Watching television isn't a horrible thing but when isn't not used wisely can be very dangerous. In TV Addiction by Marie Winn negative ascepts of television watching are brought into the light. In this article the word "addiction" is used perfusely to make a point that people can be very addicted to television where it "might have been a choice earlier" it later is "so ingrained" it becomes a "necessity." It seems ludacris when something like television is described as a necessity because the definition of necessity is something that one can not live without. Winn writes about testimony given by individual who were or are so consumed by televsion that everything else in their lives became neglected. These people stated things like "will-less" when in front of the television. They couldn't "turn it off" even thou they had to "get something started" or even when they became "angry" at themselves. A homemaker in this article said that she was
ReplyDelete"letting the machine take precedence over people" which seems so silly but it happens all the time. In The Assault on Reason written by Al Gore he writes about how the television "dominates" how "modern america" receives is information. He clearly agrees that television can be a very bad thing because it is making the "well-informed citizenry" into a "well-assumed audience." I believe both writers want to warn us about how powerful television is in our everyday lives and to be weary of that fact.
The author Marie Winn describes in her article that television is one of, if not the most addictive technology created in our time. Winn argues in her article,(pg.211)"Just as alcoholics are only vaguely aware of their addiction, feeling that they control their drinking more than they really do.('I can cut it out anytime I want-I just like to have three or four drinks before dinner')", that means television addicts don't necessarily think they are addicted to it, they think they can easily stop anytime they want just as alcoholics claims.
ReplyDeleteAl Gore agrees with Winn based on the intro article he wrote "The Assault on Reason", that when the television was invented back in 1963 it took over the press such as the newsprints; etc... he also stated in the same article that "the television is like a one way road, meaning we can only receive and cannot interact back." I think that statement supports Winn's article "TV Addiction."
Something both Gore and Winn agree on in their article "The Assault on Reason" and "TV Addiction" is that TV. is a great source of information giving but when people start relying and watching TV. instead of participating in other important activities or plans that they had, that’s when they've crossed the line, from entertainment/info giving to an obsessive thing.
In Winn's article when people began describing how they feel about TV. they started using words such as "will-less" and "If you let me watch ten more minutes, I won't watch at all tomorrow."(pg.214 pp-16) proves what TV. does to people also in Gore's article when he stated that "All of a sudden, in a single generation, Americans made a dramatic change in their daily routine, and started sitting motionless."
I think both authors support each others article up to a certain level and would both agree that the television has such a great impact in our generation.
According to article “TV Addiction” by Marie Winn, she describes the negative effects that she sees in habitual TV watching. Winn states, “the lives of heavy viewers are unbalanced by their television “habit” as drug addicts’ or alcoholics’ lives” (211). The analogy being made is that people who are addicted to the tube are like drug addicts or alcoholics. A disadvantage that Winn sees is that it blocks out the real world and brings one into an enjoyable but mental state; in a way consuming ones’ life. A similarity in belief is shown in the article “The Assault on Reason” by Al Gore when he states how television overlooks American society in a negative aspect. In a sense Gore agrees with Winn with the concept that television is corrupt and has a powerful effect on everyday life. Gore claims how sudden things can change in a generation and the smallest things can have a big effect. I disagree with Winn on the basis that TV addicts are addicted as drug addicts and alcoholics. I assert that it can be addictive but not to the state of drugs and alcohol.
ReplyDeleteMarie Winn’s article TV Addiction is about evidence that shows how watching TV has become an addiction. She is a writer who has written a lot on children and television. I have to agree with her points on the ways that TV makes you both lethargic and distracted. Al gore would also agree with her since he makes similar points in the introduction of The Assault on Reason. He says “The purpose of television news now seems primarily to be to “Glue Eyeballs to the screen”…”, which demonstrates how he is aware of the negative effect television can have on someone. It causes them to become addicted and “glued” to the screen. Winn interviews a English instructor with a similar experience, who says “I find television…irresistible. When the set is on, I cannot ignore it…I feel sapped, will-less, enervated”. This quote shows how watching television has become a negative experience where all your attention is drained. Both authors acknowledged this effect on people who watch televison.
ReplyDeleteTelevision had affected many people in certain ways. The article T.V. addiction by Marie Winn states that television has a negative effect in one’s person life. She compares television with drugs and alcohol telling us the readers that those things are similar to television addiction (211). Also, she illustrates different situations where children are often addictive to T.V. For example, a mother reports that her ten years old son is dependent on T.V. such as an alcoholic is dependent on drink. This example tells us how a kid has being influenced by T.V. to the point of asking her mother for more time to watch T.V. even if he can’t watch T.V. the next day (214). The Assault on Reason by Al Gore agrees with Winn article because they have many points in common about T.V. addiction. For example, as it’s illustrates in the article that “The purpose of television news seems primarily to be to “glue eyeballs” to the screen” in order to build ratings and sell advertising. This demonstrates how T.V. have a negative effects in one’s person life by making people sit on their sofa or chair like if they were stuck with glue. In my opinion I don’t agree with both articles because I know T.V. is a powerful habit but not to the extreme of comparing drugs and alcohol because I had never hear about a case where a person have died because of T.V. addiction but alcohol and drugs have taken away a person life.
ReplyDeleteIn Winn’s article ‘‘TV Addiction’’, she states about negative effects of habitual television watching. She argues that ‘‘the television experience allows the participants to blot out the real world and enter into a pleasurable and passive mental state’’. I agree with her, because I believe that when we watch TV continuously, it will break the connection of people with reality and make them enter the imaginary world. Moreover, the TV will make those addicted people to forget that they have other things or important work to be completed on time. Secondly, she pointed out that ‘‘it weakens relationships’’. Most of the people, especially children, rather spend a lot of time on watching television than have time to spend with their family members or friends. Additionally, they hate everybody to bother them while they are watching TV. These behaviors will affect negatively on family as well as social relationship once they addict to TV. For instance, my ten years old cousin loves to spend her whole day in front of the TV. Therefore, she doesn’t like to play outside with his friends and talk with her family members. As a result, she doesn’t have any friends and her relationship between their friends and family become weaker. If a person spends countless hours in front of TV and ceases to do any crucial works, from the description of Winn that the inability to function normally without the activity to which one has become addicted. As Winn argues that ‘‘television as like drugs and alcohol, damages those who consume their lives.’’ In my opinion, drug or alcohol gives initial satisfaction to adductors but TV doesn’t. If we consume high amount of drugs or alcohol, they will definitely harm us in physical way or we could be die. But no one will die from a nonstop watching TV.
ReplyDeleteIn Gore’s article ‘‘The Assault on Reason’’, he points out both negative and positive effects of TV. He argues that the main cause of the decline of reasoned political thought is television. He says that when more Americans getting their news from TV instead of newspaper, an activity that by its nature activate the parts of the brain involved with reasoning, the emphasis changed from reading to watching, which elicits emotion but not thought. Both Winn and Gore argue that watching too much TV changes behavior of the people. I agree with both authors because I believe that when we watch movie, advertisement, news, TV shows etc, we will get more influences or probable aggressive though emotion and behavior. As a result, our way of thinking and life style become change.
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ReplyDeleteMarie Winn believes habitual TV watching is a bad thing because it can turn into a literal addiction. Winn compares heavy TV watchers to alcoholics. In her article TV Addiction, she compares the two saying just like alcoholics feel they can control their drinking “people overestimate their control over television watching” (pg 211). It means most people who are addicted do not know it. They feel as if it is something their doing because they want to when really it has turned into something they have to do. Winn quotes from psychologists Robert Kubey’s and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book, “What might have been a choice years earlier is now a necessity” (pg 215). This addiction to television is bad because it forces people to devote their time to television when they could be doing something more productive. Winn states, “Self-confessed television addicts often feel they “ought” to do other things [but] those activities are no longer as desirable as television viewing” (pg. 211). I believe Al Gore would agree with Winn on the basis that television is overviewed by Americans. Gore states in his article, The Assault on Reason, that, “Americans now watch television an average of four hours and thirty-five minutes every day […] that is almost three –quarters of all the discretionary time an average American has” (pg. 6). However Al Gore disapproves of television for other reasons besides it consuming so much time. He acknowledges that it is a good medium for the transport of ideas but opposes that overtime television has turned from something that spread a positive “market place for ideas” to something that displays irrelevant entertainment. Gore focuses more on the effect the television viewed has on a person’s thought. He gives examples of how we let advertisements persuade our thinking. I agree with Winn’s idea that television watching can turn into an addiction. I have given television a lot of my time in the past and had allowed it to get in the way of better things I could have been doing with my time.
ReplyDeleteThe negative effects that Winn sees in habitual Tv watching is how addicting it can be. It becomes irresistible to one and just can't ignore. Tv watching for most does not provide a true satisfaction forcing us to keep watching. An example from Winn's text " TV addiction" is a filmmaker experience, he says, " … and I remember that feeling of tiredness and anxiety that always followed those orgies, a sense of time terribly wasted." (211-12) I believe Gore does agree with Winn and the influences TV can have. They both agree that TV can use up a useless amount of time when one could be doing something else. Gore points out " Americans made a dramatic change in their daily routine and started airing motionless staring at flickering images on a screen for more than thirty hours each week." (7) I must agree TV watching can be very addicting. One might not be able to ignore it and before you know it you finished spending five hours infront of a TV. I myself in front of a TV become distracted and become unable to fufill other important things. I know that if I am capable of keeping misled away from a TV I can get a lot of things done.
ReplyDeleteThe negative effects of television mentioned by Winn in her article "TV Addiction" are many. But some that stood out to me, were some words that she used to describe the negativity TV watching has upon viewers of it. She used words like "addiction" in such a harsh manner just totry and convey her point across. I mean sure you can make an argument but using a tone in your article to try and persuade people to the point you're trying to get across, sure its smart, but is it completely honest? i think not. She also said in her paper “the lives of heavy viewers are unbalanced by their television “habit” as drug addicts’ or alcoholics’ lives” (211) trying to convey that people that watch television, their lives are being compared drug addicts or even alcoholics. In Al Gore's article "The assault on reason" he completely agrees with Winn and her article. Gore was trying to say that when the TV was invented back in 1963, it took over everything else such as newspapers, articles, magazines the press itself etc. Gore dint like that. He tried to argue that TV is so bad for you that after work and everything else one has to do thats mandatory to do in their day, the free time they get is spent on TV for about 75%. At least the average american as he stated. I personally don't think its that bad. Depends on hte people that use it that often. But you cant really assume that everyone that watches television, is addicted to it.
ReplyDeleteThe negaticve effects that Winn sees in habital T.v watching is she believes that telvision is an addiction, almost like drug- use. She believes once you watch the tevelsion you can’t stop. In some cases that may be true but not all. Television can can cause a distraction but not an addiction. People choose to watch television more over reading the newspaer because television gives have images and can be more interesting. I understand where Winn might be coming from though. Television has tooken over in our society, where media conveys stories in different ways, and have people thinking one thing over another. Televison begans to change our behaviors in how we act. Both Gore and Winn agreed it changes our behavior. Gore stated, “ Moreover, as advertisers quickly discovered, television’s power to motivate changes in bbehavior was also unprecedented.” Television causes people to act in a certain way, showing them how to dress, act, party, basically live their life. We are influence by media and have been since we were babies. The influence from media controls our behavior. Winn gave an example of how a child screamed when the mother was trying to shut off the television (Winn 214). Television can affects our attitudes. If someone shut off one of my shows I would be just as upset as that kid was.
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ReplyDeleteWatching T.V is something most of us enjoy to do. It can have both negative and positive effects. To writer Mari Winn she sees television as having more negative effects than positive. In her article "TV Addiction" she states, "The television habit distorts the sense of time. It renders other experiences vague and curiously unreal while taking on a greater reality for itself. It weakens relationships by reducing and sometimes eliminating normal opportunities for talking, for communicating." In his article "The Assault On Reason" Former Vice President Al Gore stated, "And while American television watchers were collectively devoting a hundred million hours of their lives each week to these and other similar stories, our nation was in the process of more quietly making what future historians will certainly describe as a serious of catastrophically mistaken decisions on issues of war and peace, the global climate and human survival, freedom and barbarity, justice and fairness." Gore agrees with Winn's sentiments. They both states that television can distract people from important events in life such as communicating with one another and also by allowing people to get caught up in an unrealistic fantasy. Gore believes that people were being so preoccupied with TV. that they did not notice how fast our nation was cruising going downhill. Television will always be a part of American lives, however it is up to them to not let it control their lives.
ReplyDeletein the winns article it tells us alot about the negative effects and uses alot of analogies of the effects of tv. tv is something that atleast 95% in my opinion of Americans watch and enjoy tv. Winn believes that TV watching is a bad thing because it can turn into a literal addiction. Winn compares TV watchers to those who are alcoholics. In her article, “people overestimate their control over television watching” (pg 211). It means most people who are addicted to tv dont even know it. They as well as we feel as if it is something their doing because they want to when really it has turned into something they have to do or has become part of their lives or habitual. However Gore disapproves of television for other reasons besides it consuming so much time. He puts forth that it is a good preposition for the new upliftment of ideas but opposes that overtime television has turned from something that spread a positive “market place for ideas” to something that displays irrelevant entertainment. he focuses more on the effect the television viewed has on a person’s thought. while winn focuses on that it is an addiction and a time consumer.
ReplyDeleteIn Winn’s article “TV Addiction” she shows many examples of the negative effects of habitual TV watching. She states “television habit distorts the sense of time. It renders other experiences vague” (211). I fully agree with this statement because when I am watching a TV show or movie that is very interesting I do not notice anything around me. My mother would be trying to speak with me and I would not even realize, thus “rendering other experiences vague”. This is a problem that Winn realizes need to be addressed as it also “weakens relationships by reducing and sometimes eliminating normal opportunities for communicating” shown by my own experience. Gore shares similar views on habitual TV watching in his article “Assault on Runaway”. Gore says that watching TV is “one-sided and individuals only receive, but cannot send... there is no true interactivity, and certainly no conversation”. There is no real conversation or thought process being made when watching TV unlike when we are reading the printed word.
ReplyDeleteThere are many negative effects to habitual TV watching, as a matter of fact, it is very hard to point out the positive effects of watching TV, if any, there are very little. Marie Winn’s text, “TV Addiction”, describe many negative effects to habitual TV watching. In Winn’s text, she compares the habit of TV watching to an addiction to a drug of some sort. She bases her whole article on the similarities TV has to drugs and the views of random people she interviewed. The thing that most stood out to me in Winn’s article is that she actually makes the reader think more into the difference between a habit and an addiction. She states, “If television viewing is so bereft of value by most measures of well-being, and yet takes up the greatest part of people’s leisure hours, it becomes moot whether it is defined as an addiction or simply a powerful habit.” He includes the views of psychologists to answer that question, “A long-held habit becomes so ingrained that it borders on addiction … What might have been a choice years earlier is now a necessity.” So a habit is what it starts out as being; it’s something that you choose to do, then years later, when it takes up the greatest amount of people’s leisure hours, it becomes a necessity, or an addiction; something that the person can’t help but doing.
ReplyDeleteGore goes into more dept when talking about the effects of habitual television watching in his article, “The Assault on Reason”. He realized that Americans now no longer use reason, logic, and truth in order to make important decisions and explains that the reason is because of television watching. He says, “The television networks mimicked the nation’s leading newspapers by faithfully following the standards of journalism profession.” People do not feel the need to read newspapers or read books anymore because television has simply mimicked them, giving people a visual perspective of what is in the writing. Television refrain people from drawing logic, reason, and truth through their own perspectives because television does that for them. The Gore and Winn articles are similar in that they both agree that television has a negative effect on the people’s way of thinking a living but while Winn only touches on one aspect which is the fact that television is addictive, Gore goes more into dept by talking about the way television has impacted not only the lives of individuals but their thought process on many different aspects of life.
The article of “TV Addiction” graphically depicts the author’s, Marie Winn position on the effects of television in modern times. From the very beginning Winn does not agree with the pull that television has on people and often speaks out against it by using the accounts of others. In an excerpt from her book, Winn interviews a college English instructor, the person states, “I find television to be irresistible. When the set is on, I cannot ignore it. I can’t turn it off. I feel sapped, will-less, enervated. As I reach out to turn off the set, the strength goes out of my arms. So I sit there for hours and hours” (Winn 211). Her is an example of the constant addiction that Winn sees in many people and compares to that of the effects of alcohol. Just as alcoholism is inadvertently irresistible so is that of the television to many people.
ReplyDeleteWhile many people take on the same views that Winn possesses, Al Gore the author of “The Assault On Reason” does not. Gore, who is known for his environmentalist views, sees the television as a prerogative of the individual. Gore states, “Our Founders’ faith in the viability of representative democracy rested on their trust in the wisdom of a well-informed citizenry” (Gore 5). Here Gore takes on a socially and political stance where he uses the governmental structure to support his stance. He does not denote that the addiction is wrong but uses the foundation of Rome and Greece as a underpinning for his argument. As an individual I completely understand both positions of the authors but from experience I do a side with Winn because an addiction takes away from the initial use. Whereas it once was innocent in its foundational use and state the habit and addiction changes the original state to one of guilt and subconscious wants. Whereby the “well-informed citizenry” is actually a subconscious psyche feeding it’s internal want.
In Winn's article "Tv Addiction" Winn argues that we are addicted to tv and will go to great lengths to watch it. Winn collects testiments from others around her in order to illustrate how tv has a negative effect on us. (Marie Winn 215) "A long habit becomes more ingrained that it borders on addiction. A person may no longer be watching because of simple want, but because he or she virtually has to." I agree with that statement however I believe her and Gore are arguing two different perpestives of how tv is bad. Gore discussed how tv is a source of news that can become very biased at times depending on the station you are watching. (Al Gore page 17) These conglomerates are apparently sometimes tempted to bend their new-programming choices to support achievements of commercial objectives".
ReplyDeleteHabitual TV watching as described by Win is an "Addiction". Much Like a drug, Winn describes the power that television has over its watcher " The television expierence allows the participant to blot out the real world and enter a pleasurable and passive mental state". This passive mental state itself is a negative side effect of Tv. It causes children to become couch potatoes and utterly useless, Adults forget the social ettiquete that they were raised with. Winn points out many cases and examples in her article about the negative impact Tv has imposed on some of her participants.
ReplyDeleteGore's approach is slighlty different although they both state that Tv has a negative impact. Gore's approach to how Tv has impacted society speaks on the amount of growth that has occured in terms of media and how information is spread. gore points out that Tv has made other forms of obsolete;such as radio and newspapers. Gore makes no mention of the addictive nature of television in his article. He Does however point out how " Americans made a dramatic change in their daily routine and started airing motionless staring at flickering images on a screen for more than thirty hours each week." This idea ties invery closely with Winn's article.
Tv is a growing media and will forever change the routine and impact it has on our lives. With that being said Both Gore and Winn have valid points.
Television became one of the most popular enterteiment. However, lately it has turned into a neccessary componet to keep people enterteined. Sadly people became passive at the Winn's article reports it. is not just the addiction of watch television is the adction of not thing well. Do not exercise the brain. It became a drugg of the passiveness. The lack of imagination, the discovery, the try out were all broken by the tv which gives all of it ready for us.
ReplyDeleteIn Winn’s essay “TV Addiction” she illustrates the negative effect that television has on an individual. She notes that individuals are addicted to watching TV and it is a major problem both mentally and physically. In her essay she quoted “hooked on TV” which many of us are, believe it or not. She compare it to the addiction to both drugs and alcohol because “once you start it’s hard to stop”. (Winn) I agree with Winn I believe that many people spend a lot of time watching television. For example, my dad is bothered that his wife is “hooked on television”. she spends her entire day in front the TV watching one movie to another. It got so bad they have two TV in their living room. Even I was hooked on TV for a while, I remember one summer I spend most of my time watching movies one after the other when the weather was nice out. However, I agree with Winn, she is totally correct when she say “TV is addicting” because most of us today cannot live without a television in their house.
ReplyDeleteGore does agree with Winn on some level, he does believe that Television is addicting and damaging. On the other hand Gore believes that we spend too much time watching TV instead on read or socializing. He believes that Television is taking over our lives as did Winn. In Gores introduction “The Assault on Reason” he argues “Millions of Americans have simply stopped reading newspapers.” because the invention of television has taken over their lives. Maybe Winn can explain why many of us prefer to watch TV instead of reading “it’s much easier to stop reading and return to reality than to stop watching television”.