Y Kant Julian Read?

In a debate over at Slate, Steven Johnson and Dana Stevens argue over whether TV and video games rot yer brain.

Comments

[Ron Hardin]

TV is an effect of brain rot, not a cause.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Have they done any studies about debates at Slate?

[ed]

Pshaw!
We smart poeples know for sher that its bloggs that maeks us inteligant.

[ranger]

ed,

doncha means, "it's bloggs WHAT maeks us inteligant"?

[Luke Thomas]

Wait, were letting women debate men now? Who fucked up and let that dumb idea pass?

[mk]

Any parent who seen a toddler outline the many-tiered evolution cycle of various Pokemon` (something we have been told a two/three-year-old is most definitely NOT capable of doing) might have something to add to the discussion.
Of course, one shouldn't bother trying to get them to repeat the trick in any other context.

[Rich Ard]

"Blow up your TV,
Throw away the paper,
Move to the country,
Live on the farm."

-John Prine

[dhex]

burn down your farm
move to the city
throw away your overalls
and turn on your tv

-dhex

[ed]

Dang, Ranger, now I reely feel stoopid.

[wataazu]

I love television and I turn my nose up at the geniuses 'debating' it's effects.

[Warren]

I was practically raised by TV. I honestly don't know how the young'ns today will ever grow into imaginative, self-sufficient adults without guidance from Fred Rogers, Jim Henson, and Chuck Jones.

[Stretch]

As a life-long video game player and one who used to write about them, I would of course disagree that they're bad for children. To comment briefly on an overblown subset of the debate, namely game violence, it's a problem that I believe will largely disappear in any meaningful context as those who grew up with games start having children.

I'm 27, and so pretty much among the first generation who always had access to video games. Unlike my parents, who have no way to relate to such entertainment, let alone actively participate it will be much easier for me to monitor and engage in gaming culture with any future children I may have. I might not be able to enjoy and share in their music, but if they want to get their shit handed to them on the game screen, I'll be happy to oblige.

[Twba]

Be a good parent and allow the offspring to occasionally return the fecal matter.

[Stretch]

Twba, isn't it that sort of thinking that eventually results in not being able to use red ink to grade papers?

My kid will beat me when they are able to beat me. Unless it's a she in which case she will never beat me...MUAHAHAHAHAHAH!

[Frank Anderson]

Hey Jacob,

Nice Tori Amos reference. Very obscure.

[Jason Ligon]

"How you like THAT, little Timmy? Back in my day they called that ownage. Or maybe pwnage. Either way, it sucks to be you. Now give me your candy."

I've never figured out 'pwned'. At first I thought it was a typo, but everyone keeps doing it.

[Tommy]

getting off topic a bit, but I once had to look up "pwn" too.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pwn&r=f

[Larry A]

"Blow up your TV,
Throw away the paper,
Move to the country,
Live on the farm."

That'll solve the problem. If you think Friends was raunchy you haven't been paying any attention to what the livestock's been doing.

Remember the Waltons? Remember John Boy laying in bed and telling mom and dad and gramma and granpa good night at the end of the show? Think about it. What do you think he and Sis could hear after the lights went out in a house without air-conditioning and closed doors?

Don't get me started on Little House on the Prairie one-room cabins.

Then we have the dinner table conversation about how it's time to get a new rooster, or we're going to be short of eggs. Anyone remember what it meant to get the cow "freshened?"

TV doesn't hold a candle to what kids used to be exposed to.

[Randy]

I'll tell you the two things that have caused more decline in education than anything else: the self-esteem movement and the glamorization of stupidity. The former created parents who are convinced that anything one does is worthwhile and good, and the latter involves everything from the business world's acceptance of poor grammar (even in official business correspondence) to the disdain of intellectuals and the well-educated for being pointy-headed nerds while the "everyman" should be a marginally literate bumpkin who never reads the newspaper but somehow is qualified to run the country. When the "80% rule" became the gold standard, things went right into the shitter.

[Maurkov]

Wataazu,

It's probably too late, but I wanted you to know that your ironic usage of "it's" did not go unnoticed.