Does TV really make you smarter?

Over the past decades, television has become such integrated part of our life that many of us are unable to live without them. The idea of television and its relationship with intelligence have triggered great controversy. Steven Johnson argues that the increasing complexity of the television shows compared to a few decades ago, have helped the viewers to improve their cognitive and inference abilities, essentially, watching the television make you smarter. On the contrary, Dana Stevens argues that watching the television does not essentially make the viewers smarter, but its negative impact, especially on younger generation, is almost unquestionable. Both Arthur have argued the effects of the television on the viewers, but they differ essentially on the impacts of the television. The main difference lies in Johnson’s acceptance and Stevens’ rejection of the assumption that the effect of the television has a positive impact on the viewers’ cognitive ability. Common sense seems to dictate that even though televisions have changed the way people think, but their effects are not necessarily positive.
According to Johnson, television programs have grown more complicated over time. As evidence, he pointed out the shows like “24” have integrate far more information than a few decades ago watching a comparable show. Johnson assumes that by keeping up with the entertainment, such as “24”, the viewers need to pay attention, and make inferences to keep up with the plot. He argues that as television becoming more simulating, the viewers may pick up some of the intelligence while watching. He also assumes that all viewers are like him while watching television, for a certain extent, he thinks that the viewers will focus on the hidden plots, and connections and not the violence and sex, even though it is the shows that have violence and the