Johnson, S. (2001). Games. In S. Cohen, 50 Essays
(pp. 196-202). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
Winn, M. (2011). Television: The Plug-In Drug. In S.
Cohen, 50 Essays (pp. 438-447). Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.
In Steven Johnson’s essay, he takes
a controversial approach of describing the effects of video games and reading
in children. He states that children
should read more because reading expands the minds of children. He goes on to say that everyone should spend
time playing games or partake in other social media. The reason for the dull approval is that he
claims that reading improved cognitive skills and that playing videos improves
visual intelligence and manual dexterity.
Johnson is presenting an argument:
Reading and playing games increases mental capacity.
There are
negatives and positives of both positions.
I believe that children are spending entirely too much time on the
Internet and playing games. Reading is a
requirement in college and there is a lot of it. If children do not read and chose to play
games instead, that part of the brain that is used won’t be worked. This will cause actual reading to be
difficult.
Another
social media issue is that people are watching far too much television. In Marie Winn’s essay she addresses the
earlier studies and the problems associated with television today. In the 1949 there was a study done and stated
that “television will be an asset in every home where there are children.” They predicted that television would change
children’s habits.
This is
exactly what happened. Winn discusses
further there are multiple televisions in just about every household and this has
pulled families apart. In today’s family
units dad is probably watching football, mom is watching a cooking show, and
the kids are playing games. Winn goes on
to day the television, a form of social media, has become an addiction. She states that it is very similar to alcohol
and drug addictions. She offers a sound
argument that families spend less time together at due to watching television.
Both essays discuss addiction issues. I have
also surmised that technology (social media) has become today’s “babysitter”
and, unless the adults make changes to bring the families together, the
distance between teens and family with only grow.
i agree 100% with what Steven Jonson. its good to play video but not in excess, and also play games that help you learn something good, and not violent, like the ones that not a lot of kids play now days.
ReplyDeleteGood job on the Steven Johnson summary. He makes it clear that books are important,but I think his main focus was not about books. He trying get a point across that even though reading is important, there is other ways things to learn from like video games.
ReplyDelete