1. TELEVISION AND HAPPINESS By: Kayla Oakley

2. Research Question: What are the benefits of televisions to our overall well-being and sociality? Do the pros of having TV engrained in our society ought weigh the cons, especially in reference to communicative abilities and wellness in general? Claim 2: Since television creates community out of its diverse selection of programs, it allows many different types of people to come together rather than isolate themselves. Watching TV is also an easy way to have fun and relax. Claim 3: Television causes people to lack empathy and social skills, as well as desensitizes them from disturbing events and happenings around the world. It introduces children (and adults) to violence, causing people to develop more aggressive behavior. Claim 4: Television improves our long-term happiness by giving more insight into our leaders and world happenings, inspiring us as well as allowing us to make better decisions in the future, therefore, saving us from the repercussions those bad decisions could have led to. Claim 1: Overall, television takes away from time spent doing more beneficial and social activities that involve interaction with other people, like playing sports, spending time with family, etc. Source #2 Source #3 Source # 4 Source #1 Source #5 Source #6 Source #7 Source #5 Source #8 Source #10

3. CLAIM 1: TELEVISION TAKES AWAY FROM TIME SPENT DOING MORE BENEFICIAL AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES. Main Idea: This source discussed the effects Broadcast TV had on the small island community of St. Helena. Claim 1: TV takes away from time spent doing other recreational activities, (67). Claim 2: When someone is first exposed to TV, they watch it a lot more than when they’ve had it for longer periods of time, (76). Claim 3: TV had no effect on the amount of aggressive activities committed for the duration of the study, (142). Source #1: Broadcast Television Effects In A Remote Community By: Tony Charlton, Barrie Gunter, and Andrew Hannan Source #7: Television is Harmful (See slide 5)

4. CLAIM 2: TV ALLOWS MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF PEOPLE TO COME TOGETHER RATHER THAN ISOLATE THEMSELVES. IT ALSO IS A RELAXING ACTIVITY THAT LETS PEOPLE HAVE FUN. Source #3: Fandom At The Crossroads: Celebration, Shame and Fan/Producer Relationships By: Katherine Larsen and Lynn Zubernis Main Idea: Fandoms created by television (as well as by the internet, movies, books, etc.) provide people with a sense of community and belonging, giving people better self-worth and lifelong happiness. Claim 1: We all strive to find our own social clique. “The concept of niche-seeking is relevant to most human behavior, fandom included. We all strive to find those places— physical, psychological, social and emotional— where we feel most accepted and least different” (16). Claim 2: Fandoms allow for people to show their creative side as well as provide an outlet for socialization. Adam Malin, who helps to run many different types of fan-based conventions, says that he has witnessed fan communities come together over the years he’s been heading these sorts of events, (16). Claim 3: Fandoms allow people to just have fun. “Malin: To see people be happy and enjoy themselves or be fulfilled, it’s great to see people be at an event and immerse themselves in entertainment and get so much reward and joy out of it” (22). Source #6: Science Fiction Fandom By: Joseph L. Sanders Main Idea: James O’Meara and Earl and Nancy Kemp conducted a series of surveys on a broad demographic of science fiction fans. Claim 1: Fandoms provide people who were once outsiders with a place to feel comfortable with social interaction. “(…) the fan had been different most of his life. He even took a perverse pride in the fact. But being different was a lot more comfortable if one was in the company of other oddballs, i.e., fans” (5). Claim 2: Fandoms give people more confidence. They’re almost exclusive since you need have a certain amount of knowledge on the subject to be able to participate. “Above all, there was exclusivity. Like many other human groups, fans liked to know something no other group knew, and talk about it in in-group jargon. It’s the same (…) as the neighborhood kids’ tree house club with a password (…) to gain admittance” (5). Claim 3: Fan communities put everyone involved on equal ground. “Most male fans did (accept women as their equal, even during the 1950s). It was no longer necessary to “play dumb” or hide my knowledge. (…) Females gained (…) a chance to be a true peer of the opposite sex” (7). Source #5: Television Does Not Lead to Moral Decline (See slide 7)

5. CLAIM 2 (CONTINUED): TV ALLOWS MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF PEOPLE TO COME TOGETHER RATHER THAN ISOLATE THEMSELVES. IT ALSO IS A RELAXING ACTIVITY THAT LETS PEOPLE HAVE FUN. Source #10: The Economics of Happiness By: Ben S. Bernanke Main Idea: Happiness is strongly tied to one’s economic status. Happiness also increases when one is outgoing and has a strong backing by their community. Claim 1: Happy people are usually outgoing and social, with strong communities surrounding them. “Happy people tend to spend time with friends and family and put emphasis on social and community relationships. We are social creatures” (8). Claim 2: Bernanke spoke of another economist, Richard Easterlin, who conducted surveys on people from rich and poor countries, respectively. He found that people in rich countries were overall at the same level of happiness as people from poor countries. “(…) people in rich countries don’t report being all that much happier than people in lower-income countries” (5). Claim 3: People are always working toward a goal or anticipating an occurrence that will make them happy, but once getting there find another goal or occurrence to work towards (5).

6. CLAIM 3: TELEVISION CAUSES PEOPLE TO LACK EMPATHY AND DESENSITIZES THEM. IT ALSO INTRODUCES PEOPLE TO MORE VIOLENCE, CAUSING AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR. Source #2: Television Consumption and Empathy: A Connection? By: Lindsay Hahn Main Idea: A study was conducted to figure out how heavy TV use correlates with empathy. Claim 1: Overall, heavy television use causes desensitization in its viewers, while light TV viewing had little to no effect on people, (60). Claim 2: “(…) it is not just desensitization to violence that can be predicted by television use, nor is it just a callousness toward emotions. Rather, the current findings suggest that television use predicts an overall numbness to the shock value of emotion-inducing events” (57). Claim 3: “Mirror Neurons” in the brain, when over-worked, build up resistance to empathetic feeling, (57). Source #7: Television is Harmful By: Ann Vorisek White Main Idea: TV negatively impacts people of all ages. Claim 1: Television causes an increase in violent behavior among children. The American Psychology Association stated that kids who watch television on a regular basis and exposed to violence are more afraid and less trusting of the world. They’re also less bothered by violence and slower to help people in strenuous circumstances, (15). Claim 2: Television causes mental lethargy. “Although the acquisition of language appears to be universal, we now recognize that the abilities required for expression and reasoning are not automatic. Watching television threatens the development of these abilities because it requires a suspension of active cognition” (16). Claim 3: TV takes away from time spent with others. For example, when children used to get sick, they would be read to by their parents or play quiet games with them. Now when kids are sick, they spend hours on end watching television; an activity with no interaction with other people, (14-15).

7. CLAIM 3 (CONTINUED): TELEVISION CAUSES PEOPLE TO LACK EMPATHY AND DESENSITIZES THEM. IT ALSO INTRODUCES PEOPLE TO MORE VIOLENCE, CAUSING AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR. Source #8: Television Leads to Moral Decline By: Brian Fitzpatrick Main Idea: Television is corroding the moral values of the American population. Claim 1: Heavy TV use leads to more permissive moral values. The National Cultural Values Association says that Heavy TV users (4+ hrs. of TV a day) are less likely to hold onto character virtues like charity and honesty, (48). Claim 2: Only 32 percent of heavy TV users (from a study) say that they follow their lives by God’s values, (49). Claim 3: “Overall, 74 percent of Americans say our moral values are weaker than they were 20 years ago, and 48 percent say values are much weaker” (49). Source #9: TV Violence and Children By: The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Main Idea: Heavy television use can cause children to show more aggressive behavior. Claim 1: “Children who view shows in which violence is very realistic, frequently repeated or unpunished, are more likely to imitate what they see,” (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry). Claim 2: The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry says that with heavy TV use, kids begin to accept violence as a way to solve their problems, (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry). Claim 3: The average American child watched 4 hours of television daily, (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry). This means the majority of American children are heavy TV viewers, the exact demographic that presents the most violent behavior out of TV consumers.

8. CLAIM 4: TELEVISION GIVES US MORE INSIGHT INTO OUR LEADERS AND WORLD HAPPENINGS, INSPIRING US AS WELL AS ALLOWING US TO MAKE BETTER DECISIONS IN THE FUTURE, SAVING US FROM REPERCUSSIONS BAD DECISIONS COULD HAVE LED TO. Source #4: Television is Not Always Harmful By: Anna Quindlen Main Idea: Television allows people to learn the most up-to- date news in a way that an average person can understand. Claim 1: TV gives regular people insight into happenings around the world including, in particular, tragedies. For example, when Hurricane Katrina hit, many regular Americans witnessed the disaster first-hand on their TV screens, (22-23). Claim 2: Television gives people in charge (politicians) a window into the life of the average person, something they may become detached from, (23). Claim 3: “(…) saying that there’s a lot of junk on TV and that’s why you won’t watch (or, for purists, have a set in the house) is like saying you won’t read books because there are a fair amount of cheesy ones published” (21-22). Claim 4: “A certain snobbery has developed around the notion of TV viewing, (…) television is déclassé, a thing left for the masses. (…) It’s the masses who decide elections, and who live with their results as well” (24). Source #5: Television Does Not Lead to Moral Decline By: Ronald Baily Main Idea: TV inspires us to do greater things we would have never before dreamed possible, as well has little to no effect on the nation’s ethical standing. Claim 1: TV doesn’t monumentally effect our nation positively or negatively; its merely there for peoples’ entertainment, (56). Claim 2: Although television usage is still very high, degenerative trends in society have gone down, (55). Claim 3: Kids today watch less TV than they did 10 years ago, and yet they continue to increase in weight, (55). Claim 4: TV is an activity that gives people joy and lets them unwind from the stresses of everyday life. “It’s not as though two or three generations ago people were sitting around discussing (…)[...philosophers] with their children. (…) Most of them were fully engaged in the basic drudgery of earning a living or managing a household. In their (…) leisure time they might go to a baseball game or read a penny dreadful. In a similar fashion today we might switch on the TV (…)” (56). Claim 5: “(…) the (…) television (…) was a (…) window onto a wider more alluring world. It enlarged (…) what was possible” (53). Source #10: The Economics of Happiness (See slide 5)