From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris)
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Must read book on neurologic effects of TV
Date: 7 May 1999 11:10:29 GMT

In <37345c90.91555446@news.larck.net> hela@wertia.org writes:

>go to: http://www.awsna.org/publications/books_teach_res.htm
>
>See: "The Children of Cyclops"
>
>You have to read this if you have kids or have friends with them!
>It is indesputable evidence on the dangers of television.



   The danger of TV isn't just to kids, though.  That's the problem.
We humans are social animals, built to run something I've called the
"social computer" or grape vine evaluation of our neighbors to see who
we admire, who we don't, who are the heros, who are the lazy, who are
the ne're-do-wells.  Who you let your daughter date and who let your
kids play withf, etc.  That works well in small communities, and allows
the community to participate in rearing of its members.  It takes a
village to raise a child.  This is true, except that I don't think
Hillary really understands it.  The Feds are not a village.  The Feds
are like TV-- huge implacable, without feedback, and OVER THERE.  The
Feds, by sucking money OUT of villages, and feeding it back through TVs
and huge government programs, destoys the resources that people require
do to it on a local level.  Naturally, the result is disaster.

   So here we are, with all of our social inputs clogged.  The TV
doesn't hear what you say.  If you know a lot about the lives of Alley
McBeal or the people on ER, that's not going to help in your life with
the people you "really" know-- your parents, kids, friends, spouses,
lovers, coworkers, whoever.  It has nothing to do with violence or
electronics.  It's far more subtle and scary than that.  We could
remove violence and we could remove all the nearby electrons and watch
progected "movies" ala wide screeen TV.  All that wouldn't help at all
fix what I"m talking about.