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Notes -
The thing is that those constraints often created and maintained an incentive structure that mitigated the negative effects of TV shows.
In the case of content, keeping the family limited to one screen in a public area means that you can’t just pump whatever you want into your show. Mom and Dad can see what’s on the TV screen, and thus at worst bad ideas had to sneak in as subtext. And because the screen was the only one in the house kids couldn’t use it for more than an hour or two before Mom wants her soaps or Dad wants his golf. A TV show featuring women in combat would likely have been cancelled because no adult was going to let their kids watch it any more than moderns would allow kids to watch programs where the heroes smoke. TVs still have an off switch, but because kids have their own TVs that adults can’t control (or don’t control) any script writer with an agenda can put that out without worry about losing ratings when the adults turn off the television and warn their kids not to “let them catch you watching that kind of garbage.”
Personally, I regard screens like I regard any other hyperstimulous— it should be a rare treat, not a staple part of your daily diet.
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