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

by Marie Winn

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0142001082
• ISBN13: 9780142001080
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 7.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Should Be Required Reading

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.

Billiant, sobering, and life-changing

I first read Marie Winn's book more than two decades ago, and still have the dog-eared copy. In this updated edition, she again provides powerful, well-documented, and sobering research and insights into the harmful impact television has on developing brains and minds. All parents should read this book!!

The Plug-In Drug/Television, Children, and the Family

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.

helps in understanding children

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!

Should television be classified as a dangerous drug?

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.