EducationNews.org

Michael F. Shaughnessy
Senior Columnist EdNews.org
Eastern New Mexico University

As most of us know, there always seems to be a lot of information and coverage about Britney Spears, and Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. These three names seem to be on the web every day, on the television every day, in the tabloids on a weekly basis and there is an immense gargantuan amount of coverage of their escapades, their daily troubles and trials and tribulations and their car accidents and their trips to rehab. In fact, in the Sunday newspaper, good old Scott Adams of Dilbert fame kind of satirized this in his Sunday comic. His characters were discussing the idea of knowledge and information, and obviously thinking was stressful for the character, Ratbert, so he decided to chant his mantra of Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. These three names seem to be almost inextricably linked with out current zeitgeist and pop culture. Millions of people follow these three individuals and much time is spent on their latest problems.

HOWEVER, this is in a sense all time wasted. No one learns any new information that will help them in problem solving, critical thinking or higher order thinking when they follow these three individuals. No writing skills are learned, nothing about Western Civilization is discerned, and no information about our government is learned ( unless one learns about our judicial system.

BOTTOM LINE---this is time wasted. If our television networks spent as much time trying to teach people about Socrates, Aristotle and Plato, as they did trying to follow the latest gossip about Lohan, Spears and Hilton, our society might be a better place.

If the Internet spent as much time discussing the literature of Hemingway, Faulker and Fitzgerald as they did talking about what Lohan, Spears and Hilton were wearing and their child custody battles, we might have a more literate populace.

If the tabloids, (heavens forbid ) discussed the Renaissance, the Reformation and the War of the Roses, as much as they discussed Hilton, Spears and Lohan's partying, we might have a more intelligent culture and society. The old adage- "You are what you eat " is applicable here. People are what they watch on television, and the television stations reflect I guess, what people want- I will refrain from characterizing, and making global generalizations about any network. I will however, stop here and go to lunch. And take a good book with me. Parents need to be aware that what they watch influences their children and what their children watch influences their growth and development and cognitive and intellectual skills. I will choose my lunch time reading wisely.

Published November 15, 2007