Customer Reviews

The Plug-in Drug: Television, Children, and the Family; Revised Edition

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This book is about the effects of television on children and families.The use of television starts innocently enough.Too often TV is used as a child minder so that parents can get some peace and quiet: to prepare meals, so that Mom and Dad can sleep in at week-ends, etc.But dangers lurk in this innocent scenario.Before long, the kids are hooked on watching, and parents are hooked on a device for having the kids out of the way.Marie Winn aptly calls TV a drug.Many parents are aware of the dilemma, but often they are and the kids too hooked to break the habit.Winn explores the process of this addiction and the harm done to vibrant human living.For example, excessive TV viewing hampers the personal and social development of the child, so some mothers get a job to escape from their maladjusted kids!Winn offers helpful advice to families trying to cope with TV.She gives examples of the benefits families have experienced when they went without TV, such as increased family interaction, more creative and satisfying activities,doing various things that had been put of, and so on.Marie Winn gives many examples from family life which add great interest to this thoughtful and helpful book.

I was most struck with the information about what happens to us physically when we watch television. The very act of watching itself, without reference to content, changes the way our brains operate. I recommend this to all teachers, parents, and broadcast journalists.

For a long time I have been discouraged in my efforts to establish two-way communication with children. I would bring books, toys, and games to social functions and share them with children. Once one activity was over, the children would stare at me, waiting for me to start another activity. Why won't they provide any input of their own? Am I overpowering them without realizing it?

This book explained everything: the children think I'm a television!

Read 4 Arguments...Jerry Mander Then this book! If you are looking for "ways" to get rid of the TV, or "ways" to occupy your families (or your) time away from the TV. This is not the book. This is the book if you would like statistics, and startling information about TV in the lives of people. Although the TV refrences are quite early 80's ALL of the information is very useful, persuasive, and passionate.

Dont believe the hype up there! It is relevant to this day in age, take yourself to account, before the TV takes you! Buy this book and dont burry it into the shelves, pass it on the neighbors, your childrens teachers, family and friends! this book is for EVERYONE!

Excellent. A must read for parents of kids of all ages.It is really well written and should make a responsible parent a believer. Kill the TV before it kills your kids brains or at least be very selective as to what they watch.

If I ever suspected that television was an incidious pest (especially to children), this book confirms it! Reading it as an adult, I've recognized myself in much of what Ms. Winn has to say about the effects of television on the developing mind. This book has changed my life, and it will (hopefully) change yours!

This is the classic book on how television affects our children and families. Just think about how children really learn and how families should interact. Although this book was originally written closer to the dawn of television in our culture, things really haven't changed much. Ms. Winn had a great perception early on about how harmful television would be to children and their families. Check it out or better yet buy it from Amazon while you are here.

A wonderful book, that all parents should read in order to eliminate their TVs and *live* again.

Before I read this book, I was excited to get all of the latest movies and cartoons on DVD so my child could watch re-runs over and over. Since I've read this book I haven't allowed my son to watch any TV at all. I must admit that it's nearly impossible. TV is so pervasive in our everyday lives that it's hard to avoid when you're out in public or at someone else's house. It's hard to do it even at my own home (my spouse won't read the book and won't listen to the arguments). People are addicted and are blissfully ignorant about the effects of television.

I have had a great deal of difficulty convincing my friends and family that television actually does "rot" the brains of our children. And no one will read this book just to say that they read it but disagree. So many connections are yet to be made in a child's developing brain and people don't stop to ask the very basic question-- what are all of these rapid flashing images doing to the development of the brain?

If you read this book and believe the arguments presented, keep it to yourself. Otherwise take notes. You'll need the notes to defend yourself because no one is going to believe you.

As I approached the end of the book one paragraph compelled me to do some outside research and analyze Ms. Winn's book. The quotation that initiated these actions is:"The poor socialization of children today has surely contributed to the exodus of mothers from the home... But it does not seem unlikely that the increased willfulness, demandingness, and disagreeableness of undisciplined children make a life of staying home seem less appealing than the drabbest, most routine office job so many women choose in exchange.And television may be involved in the parental flight from children in yet another fashion. For in spite of the fact that parents seek to escape their children because they have brought them up to be difficult to live with." Page 201-202 With this paragraph, Ms. Winn makes a fascinating conclusion - women are leaving the workplace because their children are disagreeable because they watch too much TV? As valuable as Ms. Winn's view of society is the book would have been more believable after reading this paragraph had it cited more statistics from educational studies. Surely the government or universities or one of the numerous national foundations have funded studies on this.