TV makes you smarter, so don't bother reading this

So apparently, I'm smarter than I thought. According to this article in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine some of the new television shows are conditioning us to think smarter than our couch potato forebears. According to the lengthy piece (and if someone can make sense of the graphs, please explain them because they seem like a lot of gibberish to me—I must not be watching enough television), today's shows, like 24 , The Sopranos and even ER are better than simplistic shows of the past like Gunsmoke and Dragnet because they carry multiple story threads and jargon to make them seem more "realistic."  (I'd add to the modern-day list HBO's Deadwood, which I have to watch twice in order to discern plot from profanity.) As a counterpoint, Slate TV critic Dana Stevens says perhaps we should honor TV Turn Off Week—which began yesterday—and see if we get dumber. I propose the opposite: check your IQ here and then watch the genius box nonstop for a week and check it again.

—Posted by Aaron Baar

April 27, 2005 | Permalink