Copyright 1977, Jerry Mander
[Standard disclaimer: The nature of abstracts are that they are pieces of something larger. Not everyone is going to be happy with my choice of abstracts from any larger work, so if you are dissatisfied, I would refer you to the original document, which should be able to be found on the Internet. I encourage others to make their own abstracts to satisfy their needs. I would be happy to publish them here.
I first read this book in the early 1980's as a rebellious, somewhat typical high school kid. This book was definitely not in my school library and I had to search the public libraries for the full text after I read excerpts in the Mother Earth News. I guess Jerry's ideas lay dormant for years until our old TV finally gave up the ghost. Though I often say that the only reason that we have no broadcast television in our home is because I was too cheap to buy a new one, I think Jerry Mander's writings on the subject gave me a bit more incentive to avoid the TV salesperson.
Media influence comes up again and again in our committees when we are working to prevent substance abuse, teen pregnancy, or other troubling behavior. Media literacy is the current intervention now, hoping that more savvy people can be less affected by things like television. Jerry hearkens back to an older idea: getting television out of your life. I suppose you could equate it to the current fights about abstaining from substances or sex or teaching people to use substances and sex more intelligently. This is not a very new battle, just the cast has changed (to use a TV term).
I am not a purist on this “no-TV” business. I have a TV that show videos and such, but no broadcasts. I hope I am controlling what is seen better that way, but Jerry makes a compelling case that it isn't just the content that hurts us: TV itself is troublesome. I can say that my experiences have taught me that there are many sorts of addiction in our lives and TV is just one of the more socially acceptable ones.
The book is pleasantly dated now, making reference to such seemingly timeless television as “The Six-Million-Dollar Man” and the “Roots” miniseries. We thought these were the best things 25 years ago, didn't we? Do you think “Roots” will ever come to DVD? If Jerry Mander had his way, “Roots” would have remained a very engaging book rather than a forgettable “network television event.”
I produced this abstract using time paid for by the Quay County Maternal Child and Community Health Council with funds from the New Mexico Department of Health.
This only becomes significant concerning television when we forget that: 1) someone selected our experience for us, and 2) we have given up awareness, information and experience that is not part of television.
In the years I was researching and working on this book, I only ran into one person who works in television and was speaking publicly on points similar to this one. He was Robert Keeshan, the actor who plays Captain Kangaroo. At the 1974 Communications Seminar at San Francisco State College he said:
“When you are spending time in front of the television, you are not doing other things. The young child of three or four years old is in the stage of the greatest emotional development that humans begin to undergo. And we only develop when we experience things, real-life things: a conversation with Mother, touching Father, going places, doing things, relating to others. This kind of experience is critical to a young child, and when the child spends thirty-five hours per week in front of the TV set, it is impossible to have a full range of experience that a young child must have. Even if we had an overabundance of good television programs, it wouldn't solve the problem.”