Johnson's 'Watching TV Makes You Smarter' is an article that argues that modern TV is promoting cognitive function in that the plots of modern TV shows for the most part have complex in having multiple story threads to follow as opposed to the older TV shows with few threads or even a single thread to follow. I agree with Johnson in the fact that TV shows are not all easy to follow. There are some, movies included, which are just plain simple and take no cognitive function at all in that they include all the "arrows" that Johnson mentioned. The idea that having complex shows makes you smarter as an individual is stretching it for me. I admit that I enjoy watching on occasion such shows as 24, lost, and the mentalist. I enjoy trying to guess what is going to happen next, however, I don't think this is making me into a smarter individual. Even if it is true that TV may be helping one to exercise your brain but not to a great extent, because even if you have to guess a little bit the answer is eventually provided to the viewer. So even if Johnson is right there must be better substitutes for exercising your brain than trying to count couch entertainment as such.
I almost feel like this article is trying to give an excuse to being lazy and watching TV.
Have a nice day!
While I agree with almost everything you've posted, I do think that watching modern tv allows watchers to (to some degree) begin recognizing patterns in the human communication system and form the ability to predict outcomes.
ReplyDeleteBut I also feel like that same skill could be picked up by people-watching at Starbucks or the mall.