How does the passive act of watching television and other electronic media-regardless of their content-affect a developing child's relationship to the real world? Focusing on this crucial question, Marie Winn takes a compelling look at television's impact on children and the family. Winn's classic study has been extensively updated to address the new media landscape, including new sections on: computers, video games, the VCR, the V-Chip and other control devices, TV programming for babies, television and physical health, and gaining control of your TV.
Preface The Good-Enough Family Note about the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition
Part I. The Television Experience
1. It's Not What You Watch The Concerns About the Contents and Susceptible Kids What Does Not Happen Why Do Parents Focus on Content?
Television Savants A Strange and Wonderful Quiet
2. A Changed State of Consciousness Television Zombies The Shutdown Mechanism Concentration or Stupor?
Passivity The Reentry Syndrome
3. The Power of the Medium Why Is It So Hard to Stop Watching?
Why It Captures the Child Cookies or Heroin?
4. The Experts Dr. Spock and the Tube The Medical Establishment Physical Effects
5. Television and Violence: A Different Approach First a Disclaimer Looking for a Link Making the Wrong Connection
Part II. Television and Early Childhood
6. Television for Tots Baby Viewers
Sesame Street Revisited The Echoes of Sesame Street
How Much Do They Understand?
7. Television and the Brain Brain Changes Critical Early Experience A Caveat Nonverbal Thinking Brain Hemispheres A Commitment to Language
8. Television and Play Less Play The Meaning of Play An Experiment of Nature Play Deprivation
Part III. Television and the School Years
9. A Defense of Reading What Happens When You Read Losing the Thread The Basic Building Blocks A Preference for Watching Home Attitudes Lazy Readers Nonbooks What About Harry Potter?
Radio and Reading If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em Why Books?
10. Television and School A Negative Relationship A Stepping Stone out of a Stumbling Block (Media Literacy)
Television for Homework Commercials in the Classroom A Primary Factor
Part IV. How Parents Use Television
11. Before Television The Bad Old Days A New Light on Childhood How Modern Parents Survived Before Television Finally It "Took"
12. Free Time and Resourcefulness No Free Time Attachment and Separation Why Kids Can't Amuse Themselves
"Nothing to Do"
Competing with TV The Half-Busy Syndrome Waiting on Children Sickness as a Special Event Back to the Past
13. Family Life The Quality of Life Family Rituals Real People Undermining the Family
Part V. New Technologies
14. Computers in the Classroom Do They Help?
Big Bucks Computers in Early Childhood Why Computers Are Not the Answer What Are They Replacing?
The Computer-Television Connection Why Not Get Rid of Them?
The Problems of Bucking the Tide Computers to Enhance Reading Computer vs. Workbook On the High School and College Front A Matter of Balance
15. Home Electronics The VCR A Wonderful Addition to the Family Lapware Computer Toys Video Games Computer Games Screen Time
Part VI. Controlling Television
16. Out of Control How Parents Get Hooked A Terrible Saga Undisciplined, Grumpy Children Ten Reasons Why Parents Can't Control TV Ubiquity A Chilling Episode A Longing for Passivity
17. Gaining Control Real Conviction Firm Rules Control Devices and the V-Chip Natural Control Decontrol as a Means of Control Help from the Outside Videoholics Anonymous
Part VII. No Television
18. TV Turnoffs Three Family Before-and-After Experiments Organized TV Turnoffs Why Did They Go Back?
19. No-TV Families Getting Rid of Television: Four Families That Did It No Television Ever
CODA: The Television Generation
Who Is the Televisin Generation?
Mystery of the Declining SATs Making Inferences Writing Is Book Talk Television and the Social Chill What Is to be Done?
The Passive Pull
Helpful Organizations Brief Bibliography Endnotes Acknowledgments Index
Anonymous
Posted May 3, 2008
We didn't get a TV until I was in the 7th or 8th grade. Before it came I didn't want it. And after it came I hated it because it destroyed our family life. 'Before' we used to talk to each other. 'After' we mostly watched the TV in silence.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 7, 2006
This book does not share clear evidence proving the opinions she gives. I have read David Gauntlett's book on TV Living and it is an excellent counter to this arguement that television is a bad influence on a child's behavior. He uses great examples and explaination and I recommend reading it to get a different view rather then the 'usual' arguement that television is bad for children.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 22, 2003
This is a great book. I have a 2 year old son who I have not let watch television. He is wonderfully creative and has an incredible attention span. This book really reinforces the value of not letting your children become addicted to TV and media. It has helped me to cut down on my veiwing also. As a teacher and a parent I recommend this as a "Must Read"!!!!!
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Overview
How does the passive act of watching television and other electronic media-regardless of their content-affect a developing child's relationship to the real world? Focusing on this crucial question, Marie Winn takes a compelling look at television's impact on children and the family. Winn's classic study has been extensively updated to address the new media landscape, including new sections on: computers, video games, the VCR, the V-Chip and other control devices, TV programming for babies, television and physical...