Is Television the Drug of the Nation - Essay Example

If the heart of our nation is the activities of its people then television viewing is the destructive blood which is consuming every iota of our nation. In the article ‘Cookies or Heroin?’, Marie Winn points us to the characteristics of addiction. Throughout the article she argues about the dangers of addiction. Ultimately she concludes that television addiction had similar effects as a dangerous drug. Likewise in the video entitled, ‘Television the drug of the nation’ the author utilizes various images to illustrate to the audience that television addiction was a hazardous threat to the nation.

Consequently, one becomes alert to the fact that television viewing is a real addiction with dire consequences. Winn’s title, ‘Cookies or Heroin’ was definitely an effective strategy in grabbing the audience’s attention and propelling them to the end of the article. This strategy was perhaps the main strategy used in the text - comparison of television addiction to the worst type of drug addiction in history. Thus, Winn constantly reminded her audience of the adverse effects of television viewing.

Conversely, the author of the video initially presented images to demonstrate that television viewing was an important part of family gathering. It was only half way through the slides that one realized that the author was being deliberately deceptive. The video began with a bombardment of images of families of all creed and races in front of a television watching mindlessly as individuals spoke nonsense over the tube. All the images merged to one main television where the main actor presented himself as a ‘preacher’ and pronounces that television viewing had taken over reading and every other godly activity known to man.

The video ends with the ‘preacher’ giving life to his message by suggesting that we turn the television off in the midst of his sentence. Similarly, Winn ends her article by suggesting that television addiction is one which cannot be ‘satiated’. The preacher suggested that the television had become the gospel of the nation- Images demonstrating familiar television personalities and logos flashed quickly across the screen. Indisputably, the text was more effective than the video because of its endless supply of detailed negative effects of television addiction.

Both the text and the video ended on a note of lack of satiation of the ‘drug’- television. One was left with the unshakeable sense that this addiction is real therefore one must make every effort to analyze oneself and make an attempt to either stop the onslaught of the addiction or get help. Just like a ‘druggie’ cannot stop so too the television ‘junkie’ needs help to begin to grow and develop once more. References Countcardular. (Uploader). (2008, October 9). Television the drug of the nation.

Video retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTSASIZ1zJo&feature=related Winn, Marie. (2002). The plug-in drug.