"How Television Dims the Mind"

Jerry Mander's Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television , as the title explains, argues four main reasons television should be eliminated. Mander sees television as a medium that is not reformable.

Argument three addresses Elements of Television on the Human Being. From there he explains "How Television Dims the Mind":

"The liquid quality of television imagery derives from the simple fact that television sets its own visual pace. One image is always evolving into the next, arriving in a stream of light and proceeding inward to the brain at its own electronic speed. The viewer has no way to slow the flow, except to turn off the set altogether. If you decide to watch television, then there's no choice but to accept the stream of electronic images as it comes. The first effect of this is to create a passive mental attitude. Since there is no way to stop the images, one merely gives over to them...There is a second difficulty. Television information seems to be received more in the unconscious than the conscious regions of the mind where it would be possible to think about it. I first felt this was true based on my own television viewing. I noticed how difficult it was to keep mentally alert while watching television."

This dulling effect is detrimental to society and numbs the mind. Lets take a break from television and let our minds think for them self.