ly hinders normal brain development. Some research points to the prefrontal cortex as most vulnerable to impairment. This is the region of the brain responsible for planning and judgment. Video stimulation idles this part of the brain, preventing the constant use that is perhaps essential to normal growth (11). In other words, attention to television silences the kind of thinking and inner speech that normal brain development requires. The result is not damage, but underdevelopment.
8. Suppression of Better Activities
Before television, people spent their time at home in wholesome activities. Families worked together, played together, went on picnics or to the lake, took pleasure rides through the country, strolled through the woods and fields. At supper they gathered at the table and talked. On a stormy day or in a quiet evening family conversation might go on for hours.
People carried on many arts and crafts, from woodworking to needlework. When we look at things made generations ago by our ancestors, we are amazed at their skill and resourcefulness. Most people today are doing well if they can change a light bulb safely.
Every home in days past had musical instruments, cherished for the simple pleasure they could afford during hours of leisure. Most people liked to sing, and they knew a great variety of songs.
Until recently, most people pursued hobbies. When I was young, I collected stamps, coins, rocks, leaves, baseball cards, postcards, and books. A visit to the county fair always showed me that other people had better collections than I did. A popular hobby for men was gardening, often carried on with a passionate zeal to raise the best of a certain kind of flower or vegetable. Many women raised their work in the kitchen to hobby status. By devoting much time to preparing certain specialties, they won the acclaim of family and friends.
Before television, people liked to read. They liked to discuss issues. They freely exchanged views on the news of the day, on world events, politics, or religion. They liked to visit in each other's homes, and a welcome was so taken for granted that nobody believed in the necessity of prior notice. The car pulling in the driveway might be a relative from out-of-town. The knock on the door at any hour of the day or evening might be a neighbor just dropping in. Entertaining people by invitation was part of a normal week.
People carried on many useful activities in the community. Most were busy in their church as well as in civic organizations. There were service clubs, softball and bowling leagues, town bands and choirs, garden clubs, and political parties. Everybody participated in Fourth of July festivities, which included a parade so that half the town could watch the other half go by in costumes and smiles. Everybody kept Christmas and shared it to some extent with his neighbors. How many today know what it means to go caroling?
Most of these activities are now extinct. Why? One major reason is television.
9. Promotion of Youth Culture
Television is a powerful acculturating medium. In the 1950s it promoted traditional culture as it was known to the sophisticated upper middle class. This was a rather worldly culture, tolerant of vices such as smoking, drinking, and flirtation. But for the most part the culture mirrored on television was highly conservative. Cultural norms supported family life, church attendance, and patriotism.
Since the late 1960s, television has become an engine of another culture—the one we have elsewhere identified as youth culture. The main cohesive force in youth culture is rock music, a staple of modern television. The pervasive theme of youth culture is protest against traditional values. Lest anyone doubt that youth culture has taken over television, let him choose any talk show at random, and he will find that its main thrust is to overturn some belief or scruple once taken for granted.
10. Promotion of Materialism
Television is a commercial medium. It gives the viewer entertainment at a price—the price being to sit and watch an endless procession of min