Can TV Make You Smarter?

I just finished another season of Breaking Bad. I feel as if my IQ rose ten points!

Clearly, sitting yourself in front of a television and staring into a screen will not make you any smarter. If anything, it might just hurt your eyes in the long run.

Steven Johnson’s article, “Watching TV Makes You Smarter,” makes the point that TV makes you smarter. Such a claim may seem bold to the passerby, but his “Sleeper Curve” theory holds a lot of substance. Johnson claims that “debased forms of mass diversion – video games and violent [TV] dramas and juvenile sitcoms – turn out to be nutritional” (215). It is only nutritional in that it cognitively keeps the brain stimulated. Television shows from the past are not as captivating as they are in recent times. As the content of TV shows is becoming more complex, the more effort is needed by the viewer to try to understand the story. Dana Stevens wrote “Thinking Outside The Idiot Box” as a passionate counter argument to Johnson’s article, emphasizing intelligence as a quality that cannot be heightened by investing more thought and effort into a show. The process of intelligence is not a game where you unlock new information once you complete a level; it is using your mind to become a better thinker and think outside the box.

Television today is much more demanding of the viewer. The viewer has to “pay attention, make inferences, [and] track shifting social relationships” (214-215). In the passage, Johnson brings up shows like Starsky and Hutch to exemplify the narrative threads of a show. Each episode follows a character and the storyline but in a seemingly uncaptivating and unexciting way. The transition from shows like Starsky to a modern show like The Sopranos shows just how much more capable a viewer must be to follow the storyline (217). Upon comparing the two shows, The Sopranos “follows up to a dozen distinct threads over the course of an episode” while Starsky follows one. (218) Viewers are forced to keep up with the overlapping course of events that make shows today so exciting.

Consequently, our food isn’t served to us on a silver platter anymore. The flashing arrows, key points of the show that “reduce the amount of analytical work” a viewer needs to understand the story, are less seen on screen (221). With shows like The West Wing and The Sopranos, the viewer must think, think, think. Even if the viewer does not understand what is happening at the moment, he is expected to cognitively make his own conclusions. In video games, a gamer must always be ready for his next move. Will he encounter a sniper when turning the corner in Call of Duty and how must he respond if he does see one? Games like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty teach children to “[analyze] complex social networks, [manage] resources, [and recognize] long-term patterns.” This does make a person more capable and intelligent, especially in real-life situations.

Upon reading Johnson’s article, one must not take his words too literally. Dana Stevens makes Johnson seem like he is saying that intelligence will come overnight if one watches TV. She reminds readers that Johnson did not mention commercials. Commercials may take your mind off the TV show for a few minutes, but the viewer gets right back to focus when it returns. And concerning 24’s controversy with fictional and real political events, it is up to the viewer to think about the situation. The show does not “[discourage viewers] from thinking too much about ethic…” but it forces the viewer to be responsible for his their own thoughts (232). Ultimately, she, an avid TV viewer, concludes that TV neither enhances nor diminishes intelligence and does not contribute much to Johnson’s argument.

By sitting in front of a TV, can you become smarter? I may know more chemistry terms from Breaking Bad, but definitely not. Watching television and playing games, violent or not, in today’s age just shows how much less simple an audience is. In the past, audiences got by with simpler, slower-faced shows. Today, people are more entertained by challenges, like the sniper waiting at the corner or the cliffhanger of an episode that leaves you thinking until next week’s episode. But if you watch shows that stimulate the brain to constantly think, you may find yourself applying your cognitive abilities to situations outside box in front of you and in your mind.

 

Works Cited

Johnson, Steven. “Watching TV Makes You Smarter.” New York Times Magazine 2005: 213-30. Print.

Stevens, Dana. “Thinking Outside the Idiot Box.” Slate 2005: 231-235. Print.