Barbara Ehrenreich T.V essay Q.3

The Worst Years of Our Lives

            People who are currently living in the 21^st century watch television day in and day out for numerous amounts of reasons. Most commonly, entertainment is the main one because they get to sit around like couch potatoes and do completely nothing. No one ever asserts that television represent real life, unless that person decides to do what they see on T.V. Nowadays, it’s a vital part of most people’s lives, even though it is a fantasy and doesn’t affect the person or has a meaningful act towards them. Ehrenreich uses the term “root vegetables” to describe the American society who are planted on their behinds for hours upon hours watching television the way real people do. Most people would disagree with the terms “eerie and “unnatural” that she uses because there is nothing weird with watching T.V that involves the chasing of fast cars or violent actions. This makes it be more entertaining and amusing to watch. Watching T.V enables us human beings to escape our realities and block out what’s going on around us so we can feel less stressed.

            Like Ehrenreich states, being a couch potato is true to some extent because it’s a common thing to stare at our T.V’s for a long period of time. We will eventually un-plant ourselves from our root and move on with our lives and daily routines. As people, we have a life and most of us would rather go out with friends and have fun, some of us need to do our homework, and adults have jobs. This sums up that at we all have responsibilities to take care of, but at some point we need to relax and take a break from the world, so we watch T.V to entertain ourselves. There are times where friends and family get together, have movie nights, and enjoy a wonderful movie together.

            Despite the fact that television can turn an intelligent human being into a follower of some kind, it can do a person more good than bad, but has a possibility to do both. The effect it takes on our society can only be decided by the spectator. Everybody has their own point of view on whether watching television can be “eerie” and “unnatural” because it’s your choice on whether or not you are influenced by what you see on T.V. Many young individuals take it as a positive influence to watch their idol play a certain sport because one day they want to grow up and be like them, they see them as a positive figure in their lives as they are growing up. As a young person, sports are what people love and enjoy time watching it for a long time.

            Television was never intended to cause harm in society, rather to be informative and important in the real world. It has transformed society in a way that it allows the entire population to receive important information quicker. It is one of those innovations that shouldn't be considered or seen as a real world complication unless you make it influence you the wrong way and take out stuff you see on T.V that will cause severe consequences. Most people, such as adults, turn to the news channel because there might be a current event to know and want us to be informed on the situation. There can be a shooter on the loose and news reporters intend to warn the people to be precautious and stay alert to what’s going on around them