The comparison between old school television programs such as Starsky and Hutch and new programs such as The Sopranos show an increase of intelligence needed to virtually sustain a sense of comprehension while viewing the show. The author uses graphs to portray the difficulty and variety each show offers for the viewers; the results show that new age shows require the audience to have greater mental strength than the older classics. The comparison between video gaming and reading literature gives great insight on both skills required for the two sources of entertainment. Though overall, the skills required to read and understand a book(concentration, memory, etc.) are valued more than the skills to successfully complete a video game in the real world, they both offer a variety of mental workouts that can help the individual grow in the real world including hand-eye coordination and virtual memory.
In both excerpts, I felt comfortable with the fact that both perspectives were brought into play, and were balanced out. I personally liked the way the graphs were used to give us a visual representation of the change in TV shows over time. I still do not feel that determining advancement in the human intelligence based on how the shows were constructed justifies the opinion that we have grown smarter through the use of technology. As it is said in the text, the ideas that created The Sopranos and other mind-numbing shows have been represented in older programs. The simplicity in classic TV shows only come from our lack in experience. We should not be expected to be capable of creating a twisted eventful plot five years after the TV is invented. I don't think criticizing the simplicity of old shows is an accurate way of viewing our advancement as a whole.
The excerpt regarding video games and reading literature had my personal opinion swaying from one side to another. The part that struck me to be truly significant is the feeling of isolation while absorbed in a book vs. social interaction in a video game. Video games these days are designed to let the individual interact with people all over the world, whether they are strangers of family. This option makes the choice of video games to seem much safer in terms of growth in social skills, but in reality you are not socializing with one another in the real world. Speaking to someone face to face requires a wider range in social skill compared to raging at some stranger over the mic connected to your game console. You feel a sense of security compared to the raw feeling of interacting and socializing with an individual sitting next to you.
M.T. Anderson had a very biased view on the advancement of technology. He mocked our generation of relying heavily on electronics. The excerpts still showed some respect towards the people who live a lifestyle which requires the use of technology, but also contradicts an argument with a flip-side. Anderson's main focus is on human advancement and how it is "negatively" affecting our society, giving us a insight on how pathetic it will be if we continue to tighten the bond between humans and electronics. The author of the excerpts focuses on technology's "significance" in our lives. Although the main ideas of these two authors don't necessarily go hand in hand with each other, they both show our advancement. One being the advancement from the past to present. The other focusing on our advancement from here on out.
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