Pete Hamill's article "Crack in the Box" describes how television has the same negative effects as drugs. He states that television is addictive and creates the same influence over a person's life that a drug can have. The abuse of drugs provides an escape from reality, a feeling of indifference towards society, and generates an undeserved stimulus to the brain. Hamill is correct in his assessment that watching television produces the same symptoms as taking drugs.
The term couch potato did not develop when the couch was invented; moreover the term became popular the same era as the television. The term refers to somebody that is lazy and spends his or her time in front of the television, or in other words it refers to millions of Americans. To further exemplify the lethargy in society a Nielson Survey concluded that "the average family was watching television seven hours a day" (248).
Electronics recycling (including computers and tel...
Family watching television, c. 1958
A pile of crack cocaine ‘rocks’Our over-privileged society spends these hours glued to the television screen warped into another carefree world. Television makes the viewer forget his or her problems and creates a roadblock effect when it comes to solving them.
Television develops a tolerance to the evils that occur in society. Death, whether it results from a ten car pileup, a raging fire, or a heinous murder, is what makes a show exciting. News anchors often tell a devastating story then will be flashing their bleached white teeth through a smile only moments later. Television viewers do not have sympathy towards melancholic events because they see them everyday.
Not only do millions of people waste time watching television, they laugh, cry and rejoice with fictional characters over a fictional story. Television viewers become deeply lost in thought - an unfamiliar territory for some sitcom fanatics. These viewers will neglect personnel thoughts and...