I thought this article was very
straight forward and incredibly interesting.
This article got me thinking about how much TV I watched at certain
points in my life and how my attention span changed over time. As a youngster, I watched a moderate amount
of TV and had a decent attention span.
As a teenager, I saw my attention span decrease while my TV watching
increased. Currently, I watch a lot of
TV before bed and have recently realized that I need to start reading
more. I feel there is no comparison to
reading a good book. They are full of
description and a person's mind is much more active while reading. I also feel like my vocabulary drastically
improves when I'm reading consistently.
A quote from the article that stood out to me was when the author said
that people today are "unlikely to devote more than a few minutes at a
time to any kind of activity" (p. 593).
I feel like this is true when I think about a lot of my family and
friends. This article has really made me
think about how I spend my downtime and I want to make a collective effort to
get back to reading as much as I used to.
I felt the same way SCbaseball. This article was just as much a wake up call as it was educational. It is interesting that you could map out the relationship between your attention span and the amount of tv you watch. For me I have noticed that reading requires much more effort than watching tv. At night, before bed I can read for maybe 30 minutes before I fall asleep. However, I can watch tv for a few hours and I usually have to force myself to go to sleep. The constant bombardment of changing images and sounds keep us stimulated with far less effort than reading a book. I hope our generation can all start reading more because I feel that reading is directly proportional to our nations academic standing, which has been on the decline.
ReplyDeleteSCBaseball,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your discussion. I find myself watching way too much TV throughout the day when I could be doing other things that are more productive. Once you sit down, turn it on, and find something you like, you get hooked and have to continue watching. It’s a form of entertainment and the younger generation has experienced it the most. Parents rely on television to help them entertain their kids. Kids should be more interested with using their imagination, then watching cartoons all day.