Summary Of The Worst Years Of Our Lives By Barbara Ehrenreich

Throughout the week, talk shows such as Maury and Jerry Springer are displayed on our TV screens. Whether or not a person is a vigorous viewer, the storyline of the show comes up in a conversation at least once a week. Talk shows regularly take a look into the life choices of a certain person or group of people. In the text “In Defense of Talk Shows”, Barbara Ehrenreich raises the question of the moral conflicts presented in talk shows and presents the idea that they are an exploitation of lower class people. Ehrenreich’s claim throughout the text is strong, and is supported by a segment in the documentary Bowling for Columbine. If the ideas presented by both Ehrenreich and Michael Moore are correct, I’d like to propose,

TV without Guilt by David Finkel focuses on the Delmar family’s relationship with TV. What I enjoyed about this article is how the family kept an open-mindedness about television. For example, “I mean without TV, who would exist? Just these middle-class people I see every day. I wouldn’t know anything else that goes on” (83). This quote said by Bonnie Delmar, is one of the may statements that are said in the article about television. What I found interesting in this article was the differences of the family environment between the Delmar’s and my own. Finkel throughout the article noted not only the times and types of shows were watched, but also the type of food and their daily lives. In page 82, in the article, Finkel illustrates Bonnie giving soda and Rice Krispies to her kids while they watched cartoons. This description was something that I never did growing up, so when I read this part of the article I was surprised that this happened.

In The Essay “The News” Neil Postman demonstrates the problems with News on TV and the Psychology behind it of why our society continues to watch. Postman displayed many points that becuase television news is must appeal to everyone in a short amount of time; the coverage is often shallow and gives a false impression of the world. Neil Postman describes the time restrictions of (22 mins) because of commercials overtaking the news. This reflects “The News” as we know it to become a big piece of entertainment that has nothing to do with the intellectual information that affects our lives. The lack of in-depth look on News nowadays draws an Appearance vs. Reality that the News isn’t what It should be. Given these points, Postman explains the problems

In the essay the author is honest about peoples behaviors in life and how they idolize the lifestyle displayed on television than their own. For example, in paragraph 10 Rita Dove states, “Who isn’t tempted to ignore the inexorable fact of our insignificance on a dying planet? We all yearn for our private patch of blue.” In this quote, Rita illustrates that people are very ignorant about life and its negative significances. Rita is very straightforward and honest about such situation. In another example, in paragraph 10, Dove states, “Life, on the other hand, slithers about and runs down blind alleys and sometimes just fizzles at the climax.” Rita demonstrates that we see life experiences as boring so we prefer television as it gives the full story with every detail making it much more intriguing for the people.

In her book, The Worst Years of Our Lives, Barbara Ehrenreich asserts that “modern people, i.e., couch potatoes, do nothing that is ever shown on television” (22-24). That is an audacious statement. Is it reasonable to assume that anyone who watches television is indolent and does nothing with their life? Of course not. While anything in excess in not healthy, categorizing all modern people as "couch potatoes" is a harsh generalization that weakens Ehrenreich 's argument. Believe it or not, television and educational programs can actually be beneficial to children. For the past 20, or so, years parents have invested time and money into purchasing educational television programs that promise to make their child smarter. In fact, Dr. Huston of

Peter Weller once stated, “Television is an isolating experience, sadly enough. But as good as it ever gets, it’s still isolating. You sit in your home and visit with no one.” Staring into the television screen, zoned out and mesmerized, our minds are living the life of the characters in the movie or TV show. In today’s society, people obsess over there shows instead of there family, friends, and children. The television has seized our minds, ignoring what’s happening around us. David Sedaris’s story “Us and Them” is an example of a good story because of the humor, theme and conflict, these are elements creating an intensive piece.

Jerry Mander in his book ”Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television” shows how television is creating addiction, giving as exemples a 3-year $5 million study done by NIH, that showed that television can be ”addictive and hypnotic”, and how political figures tried to stop such researches(”The President suppressed the study and commissioned another group to re-do it”). Mander also mentions about Marine Winn’s work, that talks about the effect called ”The Plug-In Drug” created by television, wich is wielding an addictive influence on the very young and it is causing dependency simply by showing ”ever-changing array of sights and sounds coming out of the machine” and ”wild variety of images meeting the eye”. As a result, the media is not just showing addictive programs but it also selects for us what to watch, and by creating dozens of programs they gives people the imprestion that they choose what they are watching, when in fact, the information it is easilty

“Gray animals peering from electric caves, faces with gray colorless eyes, gray tongues and gray thoughts looking out through the numb flesh of the face” (Bradbury 132). The people in Fahrenheit 451 are exactly as the protagonist, Montag, describes them: gray, animal, dehumanized and lifeless. Ray Bradbury has built a society in which people spend their days mindlessly watching television. Violence, bullying and murder are common, especially coming from school children, who spend their school days watching even more television. Montag is a fireman who burns books and slowly comes to understand the dehumanized and meaningless state that his society is in. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 demonstrates how dehumanization can lead to a meaningless

As technology advances exponentially, America and the world need to learn how to use this technology without abusing it. Ray Bradbury writes about a dystopian America with huge problems ignored by the public in his novel, Fahrenheit 451. Today, America already faces many problems that might cause disastrous effects in the future. Bradbury uses his novel to warn against certain aspects of modern society through a story about a society that became too dependent on television. Although the novel describes a fictional America set in the future, Fahrenheit 451 presents serious warnings about the dangers of conformity and technology in modern society that apply to America today.

During an average week, how much television does the average child watch? Parents, educators, and concerned citizens alike would be appalled at the answer of 1,480 minutes (BLS American Time Use Survey, A.C. Nielsen Co.). They would also be revolted by the statistic that 54% of four to six year olds would rather spend time watching television instead of spending time with their fathers (BLS American Time Use Survey, A.C. Nielsen Co.). In 1984, Neil Postman saw how devastating television watching was becoming to the culture of America, and gave a speech to the literary community at the 1984 Frankfort Germany Book Fair entitled “Amusing Ourselves to Death” which deals directly with this monolithic issue. Although the speech and subsequent article, published in Et Cetra, were directed at the publishers, writers, illustrators, etc., all those who read this article can also benefit from Postman’s overarching desire to decrease the hours of mind-numbing television watching. Through his successful use of ethos, logos

At the beginning of life, people are innocent, with life not having a chance to tamper and corrupt them. At the end of life, they 've known loss and heartbreak and life has messed them up. But imagine if people were born all knowing and died as innocent as a baby. Bobby, a character in Angela Johnson 's story The First Part Last, believes that that idea is how life should be. But the story addresses a different idea, coming of age. Bobby, being the main character, was the focus of that idea. By the end of the story, Bobby had become an adult by giving up his old sport, past- times, and always claiming Feather as his own.

What is the right thing to do? Ellie Wiesel believes people should do the right thing, but more importantly these should choose a side. Indifference is worse than anger, rage, and hatred as Ellie said, “Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, have done something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses”(Elie Wiesel, The Perils of Indifference). With indifference people are only punishing the victim and helping to achieve the goal of the unrighteous. This idea is not only held by Ellie, but also former president Theodore Roosevelt, who stated “In any moment of decision, the best thing people can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing,

Surviving off of a minimum wage job in America is a very difficult task to accomplish. Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed, created an experiment in which she decided to leave her normal life to discover just how hard it is to live off of minimum wage. Ehrenreich made many discoveries during her experiment, most of which contributed to the assertion “On (Not) Getting By in America.”

How do movies and television influence people’s behavior? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer.

Today television plays a big role in many people’s life, especially for children. It is hard to imagine a world without television. Thanks to the development of technology, television is invented, and considered as a great medium that provokes imagination, encourages education, and entertains the children around the world. Television can also be a beefy influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior (Bee, 1998). Besides considering some benefits, some people believe that this telecommunication medium creates many problems to the kids. To attract the audiences, many movies and series have a tendency to contain more uncensored violent scenes. Numerous children spend too much time on watching television each day, and their parents cannot control what kind of TV shows or videos that their sons or daughters are watching. Research reveals that exposure to violent media can result in aggressive attitudes and violent behavior in some children (Dr. Gail Gross). This paper, with the aim of providing parents an overview