Television: The Plug-In Drug. Time spent in front of a screen

Winn, M.(2011).Television: The Plug-In Drug. In S Cohen. (Ed.), 50 Essays(pp.438-447). Boston: Bedford/St.Martins. Print. 

To summarize "Television: The Plug-In Drug," by Marie Winn, she shows us how the uses of television has impacted family life in the past years for the worse. Television at first was expected to be a big family asset, bringing the family together in one room to enjoy each others companies, but throughout the whole article, she argues against that. She shows the instance of a first-grade teacher reporting on the mother of one of her students. The child is isolated from the group and makes no friends, so she talks to her mother and finds out that as she makes dinner, the girl is watching television. The teacher suggests that she have her daughter make dinner with her, that it would be a good time for them to talk; the mother responds that she'd hate to have her daughter miss her favorite program. She mentions families having more than one television, often children having their own and how it it separating them from watching television together. She believes by crowding around-- or even dispersing to their own television is keeping them from playing games or joking around with each other, that families are not developing strong relationships with each other, and are often missing distinguishing qualities that make families unique.

Are we having fun yet?

In my experience, this is very true. I have seen children ignore their parents because they want to play their game or watch their show, but sadly, I have also seen parents ignore their children and even reprimand them for interrupting. I cannot deny sitting here at my computer doing things I do every day and not wanting to be bothered by anyone, myself; but I recognize this to be something that needs to change. The time that is spent in front of a television, or even a computer screen, is growing in many or most families. Now, that doesn't mean it's all bad and we need to kill it with fire, but to an extent, we do. I believe we need to try and use these resources as a positive influence, not a time-sink, and with effort, this can be accomplished.

As a note, I know this is not the case for everyone, but it is still considered a serious problem for many.