The Plug-In Drug: Television, Computers, and Family Life (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Concern about the effects of television on children has centered almost exclusively upon the content of the programs children watch..." (more)
Key Phrases: controlling television, television control, television experience, Sesame Street, New York, Channel One (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

After 25 years, Winn (Children Without Childhood) has completely revised and updated her landmark study of the influence of television on children and family life by incorporating findings based on recent research and investigating the impact of the home computer, the VCR, and the video game terminal. She has also shifted the focus from the TV programs children watch to the negative effects of television on children's play, imagination, and school achievement. Although Winn pinpoints many key shortcomings of television, this study is not argumentative; Winn instead aims to stress the quality of family life without television, to show educators and parents how to control the medium, and to offer practical suggestions on how to improve family life not dependent on television. This refreshingly candid and inviting study is highly recommended for both public and academic libraries. Leroy Hommerding, Fort Myers Beach P.L. Dist., FL
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

How does the passive act of watching television and other electronic media-regardless of their content-affect a developing child's relationship to the real world? Focusing on this crucial question, Marie Winn takes a compelling look at television's impact on children and the family. Winn's classic study has been extensively updated to address the new media landscape, including new sections on: computers, video games, the VCR, the V-Chip and other control devices, TV programming for babies, television and physical health, and gaining control of your TV.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); 25 Anv edition (April 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142001082
• ISBN-13: 978-0142001080
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #120,657 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Powerfully persuasive or totally histrionic? You be the judge., December 22, 2005

By	Homeschooling Single Mom - See all my reviews

With this book, Marie Winn has written an arch (though lengthy) indictment of television's pervasive and largely detrimental impact on childhood culture. With sixty years' worth of data, studies and surveys as ammo, she makes a nearly airtight case for why television should be strictly limited for the elementary children and why the recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics that no children under the age of 2 be allowed to watch is not just commendable, but physiologically and neurologically imperative. She lays out her small mountain of evidence that the practice of ritualistic television watching dulls children's sensitivity to others, negatively affects family life, nearly annihalates their motivation to contribute to their own development as critical thinkers and, especially, critical and enthusiastic readers, and generally, is neither necessary nor desirable as the cultural stronghold it's become.

Ms. Winn peppers her work with diverse perspectives from different families on the effects of television on children, from mothers who let their toddlers watch unlimitedly, to old-skool teachers who think it's ruined kid's minds. She also makes a comparative (though obviously tacked-on for the updated version) survey of computer games, video games, and online usage, arguing that it's all "screen time" and has more or less the same effect on children's intellectual and emotional productivity. She provides case studies of families who have tried to severely limit or altogether forgo television with unbiased candor (some of the families fail in their efforts, find the effort totally unpleasant, or end up going with a less radical approach than their initial cold-turkey strategy). Most helpfully, she provides practical tactics for reducing or getting rid of television in your home without causing your children and spouse to disown you. She lays out the ten most common reasons why parents fail to act on limiting their kids' television usage, then one by one, she provides solid, confidence-building reasoning against each one. After I read this section, I felt like I had a LOT more conviction in my decision making, and in applying her strategies, I will say that everything she predicted has come true: my child is indeed reading more, we are indeed spending more time together as a family, his social skills have indeed improved, he has become less aggressive and more imaginative, and we don't miss anything we used to watch.

With all that said, it's important to understand this author's perspective going into this. According to Ms. Winn, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING GOOD about letting your child watch television. She acknowledges that there are "many fine television shows" and that "some may even be educational," but in the end, her thesis is that it's not the content of what your kids watch that matters, but the *experience* of sitting passively and "letting images wash over you" in a half-trance "zone" for hours that is so damaging for children.

This philosophy, while in and of itself isn't necessarily wrong or bad, leads Ms. Winn to make incrementally more far-fetched and less supported claims, including that television makes children so unpleasant that it has actually caused a greater number of working mothers, is largely responsible for destroying the nuclear family, can probably be blamed for school violence (her reasoning: children whose main social experience is not with another human being but with an electronic machine can't be expected to care about other humans' well-being), is causally linked to climbing divorce rates, ADHD, the loss of music and arts programs in school, the rise in learning disabilities and autism, bad politicians getting elected (it's not like a television-educated/dependent public can be expected to make sound, informed decisions!) and... I could go on.

I think that, had she simply laid out her case about the direct effect on children, this book would've been enough to convince any caring parent that TV-watching is something that, for children, should not occur unfettered. I feel, though, that she felt a need to "drive her point home" by adding all these other macrocosmic reasons to support this claim, and it wasn't just unnecessary, it was just plain hard to believe after a certain point, and undermines her entire thesis.

Still, I would recommend this book to any parent. Her main point is a strong one; her case for her claims, if laden with support-overkill, is damn near airtight. If you are a parent, you won't help but question your own children's television viewing habits and more strongly consider setting limits of your own, and that, ultimately, is a very good thing.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kill Your Television, February 20, 2005

By	Melissa Solomon (Victoria, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a researcher and a college educator, I didn't expect much when I picked up this book. The topic interested me, so I checked it out of the library, but with reservations. I expected scathing rhetoric that belittled all positive uses of TV. I expected Winn to be a "Kill Your Television" type of author.
What I found in this book surprised me, to say the least. Winn sited hundreds of studies that described the possible negative effects of television but kept her "thus proving that TV is the devil" mentality to a dull roar. Although there were instances where she stated that a study's results "prove" that TV is bad for kids, this was not the main mantra of her book. Winn stated that she understood why parents used TV in the home, and gave suggestions for how to change the viewing habits of a child and a family. She described personal accounts of TV Turnoffs, some positive and some negative in their outcome. She also discussed other media such as the Internet and video games, and gave information about how these may affect children as well.
The best use that I found for this book was as a jumping-off point for discussions in my child psychology classes. My reading this book gave me the opportunity to discuss these opinions and research findings with my students, and I found that these discussions gave them a lot to think about. Personally this book made me examine my own childhood that was filled with TV and also made me question whether I will allow my own future children to watch this "drug."

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should Be Required Reading, September 11, 2003

By	"hollygirl717" (Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews

Marie Winn makes a compelling and convincing argument that TV addiction is drastically affecting our children's ability to learn. She is absolutely right. TV addiction is so overwhelmingly prevalent in this culture that living without TV is considered extreme deprivation. We can't so much as sit peacefully and quietly in a doctor or dentist's office waiting area -- the TV is everywhere. We Americans cannot function without it.

Don't believe me? Unplug your TV and turn it around to face the wall. Don't touch it for thirty days. Thirty days of abstinence is the standard many psychiatrists use with patients who insist they aren't alcoholics.

I got rid of my TV four years ago, and have suggested the thirty-day test to friends who insisted they weren't TV-holics.

The longest anyone's ever made it is six days.

People intuitively know that TV is wasting their precious life energy -- that's why every conversation starts off, "Oh, I hardly watch any TV at all...." which is bull, and we all know it.

Marie Winn offers clear and cogent research and arguments to back up what we all, deep down, know to be true.