Summary 6

In the article “Thinking Outside the Idiot Box” by Dana Stevens it is argued that watching TV does not necessarily make you any smarter. Stevens‘s article is a response to an article that claims that watching TV makes you think about the events taken place on the shows that you are watching, therefore making you smarter. In contrast to his fellow author’s interpretation of the hit TV series 24 being “nutritional” Stevens points out that the show has a few controversies. These controversies range from the shows representation of Muslim terrorists to how the program endorses torture. These issues Stevens believes were ignored by Steven Johnson, who is the author of the article “Watching TV Makes You Smarter.”
While Dana Stevens admits that he watches a good deal of television and boasts that it is mainly because he gets paid to do so. He suggests that watching television doesn’t make you anymore intelligent as well as it will not cause you to be any less intelligent than what you currently are. Going back to his interpretation of the show 24, Steven’s admits that the program’s plots and information keeps audiences captivated but fails to have them think about anything other than future episodes. Unlike Johnson who feels as if the show makes its audience pay attention to their surroundings, becoming more aware of “social relationships”, Stevens considers the show to promote racial profiling. Another point Dana Steven’s makes is that with all the excitement that goes on in 24 the audience fails to see that the show is about a vigilante, therefore closing his argument that this particular television show doesn’t make anyone smarter.