Television is commonly criticized as being bad for American society. Just as Marie Winn in her essay "The Plug-In Drug," television I believe that television has various negative effects on our society also, but I do not feel that watching television is all negative. Television today has a lot of positive effects and influences on our society and our American culture. Television gives us various forms of education for children as well as adults, informative information, entertainment, and on television there are many people who are looked at as idols.
             Some types of television viewing enhance children's intellectual development such as educational programs such as Sesame Street, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Dora the Explore, and Blues Clues. There has been many time when I've watched these programs with my niece and nephew. I've seen how well they've picked up counting, learning their ABC's, learning Spanish, and other social things such as; sharing, right from wrong, and manners. TV also teaches adults. On a regular basis I tune into the history channel and the Discovery channel to learn more about things I didn't even know happened or existed. I've learn about the different things that scientist are finding about outer space, I've gotten the chance to see what dinosaurs might have looked like, and I got the chance to view some of the things that happened thousands of years ago. I've gotten the chance to see animals and plants as if you were looking them in the face; it's more realistic. Some channels show different places all over the world that many people couldn't dream of visiting. You see some places that you didn't even know existed. There are also cultural programs which inform you about many other cultures and of your own. You're shown many reenactments of the things that happened in history, which can give you a better understanding of things.
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