Rating: 
Summary: Very good and very bad
Review: This is a book that needed to be written.Up until Mander wrote his book almost no comprehensive study or overview of tv watching had been attempted.Mander attacks the tv from every possible angle;its effects on social isolation,how it condenses and necessarily distorts information,how it feeds false images of wealth,success,beauty and other fictions we can't have or live up to and how it may psychologically affect us, and he hits the nail on the head when explaining why tv is filled with violence and the basest and most obvious and lowest common denominator:Because those images and emotions and actions are easier to transmit and be understood by the audience,whereas quiet reflection or any real subtlety on the part of the actor can't adequetly be expressed.Mander goes on to intimate that the inherent coarseness and limited nature of tv also coarsens and maybe even saps the brain power of those who watch too much tv.He shows that tv is an inherently worthless medium because it is not interactive and one never really learns anything from tv,and as you are bombarded by a continual flow of images whatever snippets of info you have picked up will only be buried by the next bombardment of images.He implies that tv turns the mind into a garbage dump of mindless and worthless images.The central point of his attack is that tv is useful only as a tool of advertising and propagating the dominant culture of consumerism.The book is dated by the fact that there were only 3 major networks when this book was wtitten,so Mander makes a lot of the fact that at the time only the wealthiest of companies could run commercials and that the programming was limited to these 3 big networks and PBS.Where the book unravels is in its inane and limited social commentary.Mander has a very limited grasp of history and is guilty of drawing the same conclusion as all social commentators with the same defect,namely,that mankind has never been in such a sorry state as right now and things are only going to get worse.Mander goes on in great length how our ancestors were much more in tune with the land and all the sights and sounds and smells of the "natural" world and how modern man has lost many of his natural faculties due to creating an environment that is totally artificial and made subservient to our needs.He posits that our increasing crime,depression,insanity and general feeling that society has lost all its moorings is a result of our being separated from all things natural.This is more or less rehashed noble savage or the fall of man silliness, and it brings the level of the book down considerably.The book is a definite 10 for the insightful and dead on commentary on the medium of tv,but a 0 on the foolish and almost laughable social(ist) commentary.
Rating: 
Summary: very reasonable and persuasive
Review: Mander presents four main arguments, and dozens of corollary arguments, against having television as any part of our lives. Any one of them alone might seem plausible but perhaps overblown, but the overall effect of their combined presentation is overwhelming. I closed the book absolutely revulsed by the nature of this technology and how it has manipulated us. I can anecdotally attest to its ill effects in my case, certainly -- I can recognize thousands of brands but only a few plants. My direct knowledge of the world has been reduced by about 20,000 hours' worth of actual experience interacting with real people, time that I spent instead glued to the boob tube, absorbing hundreds of thousands of commercials. I don't have a TV anymore, but whenever I am around one that's turned on, I find myself hypnotically drawn to stare at the screen, irrespective of content. This occurs even if I am in the middle of an interesting conversation -- to my embarrassment and dismay, my eyes dart as of their own accord toward the flickering images. I have to stand facing away from the TV to prevent this. What I consider to be my natural aesthetic sense has been perverted such that I can hardly look at a man or woman -- or myself in a mirror -- without automatically, subtly judging the person's appearance against an internal metric, a deep and narrow palette of beautiful faces and lithe body parts, implanted by hundreds of thousands of advertising images. This phenomenon subtly cheapens and distorts many interactions I have with people. .... Just scan the table of contents to Mander's book, ..., and you will begin to see the array of influences these forces have in our culture and in our individual minds. Please buy the book, give it to everyone as gifts this year, ***especially to parents of small children***. I see parents use the TV as a pacifier, but as you will read, it is an incredibly high price to pay just to keep the kids temporarily quiet. ....
Rating:
Summary: My mind devoured it
Review: In a world where there is little hope for the damned.. that is, those that do not enjoy physical activity, those who feed into consumerism and mind-numbing, non-stimulating spectator-of-the-screen entertainment.. it was a delight to read such a strong, plausible opinion to better humankind! This is a great book and it motivated me a great deal to stick to what I believe in with regards to the ugliness of advertising and modern-day electronic entertainment. Internet is okay because you can just look up what you WANT to find and then shut the computer off, you don't get suckered in to watching the news for an hour just to see the one story you care to see... GET OUT AND DO SOMETHING FOR YOURSELF!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Stunning
Review: Most people think that television is harmful in some ways, or at least it isn't very helpful. This book shows that the impact of television is much worse than most people realize. If you "only watch television now and then," this book will convince you to stop completely. I wish I had read it twenty years ago.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting arguments but...
Review: Much of the material presented in Mander's book is credible and compelling. Certainly we have felt the television "drain" that he describes with respect to intelligence, creativity, worldview, etc. Many of us are also aware of the, perhaps unavoidable, tendency of television to enhance and consolidate the positions of those who administer it's content. We are also aware that the purpose of television is to get us to buy things and thus further the cause of a capitalist-consumer society. The single problem with Mander's argument is: to eliminate television from America (more logically from the world over) would REQUIRE a dictatorship. There is no getting around this, yet he never addresses this problem. Certainly television can sometimes promote the power of special interests that are in conflict with the long term goals of humanity, but how would the absence of television insure a more just and intelligent society? It comes down to freedom. We cannot "eliminate" television from the face of the earth, nor should we. We can however, individually, exercise the sacred right of individual freedom and choose not to watch it. That far, and no farther.
Rating:
Summary: A long argument for the elimination of capitalism
Review: One of the contingencies associated with eclectic reading preferences is from time to time a book will be discovered where upon completion you find yourself in a state of ambiguity. In view of the unequivocal title, indecisiveness and hypocrisy on the part of the author were the least of my expectations when I started this book. Therefore, by the conclusion when he made it perfectly clear he had no intention of severing his personal dependence on television unless and until - by acclaimation - all of western society elected to dump broadcast technology, I found Mr. Mander to be somewhat disingenuous. Technological advances over the last 25 years also indicate he was no clairvoyant however, the valid issues he addressed when he began his treatise in 1974 remain as pertinent today. The difficulty was and remains, his primary objections reside with the fabric of western culture where television is simply one swatch of material. The first two arguments are really indictments of the oligarchies of capitalism and the cabals of commercial advertising. Television is attacked as the most effective medium for dissemination of ideology and suppression of independent thought. Mr. Mander was an advocate of "New Age" philosophy before it had an easily identifiable moniker. It came as no surprise in later chapters when he referred to the works of Castaneda since many of his initial postulations inferred a desire to *regress* (my opinion, not his) to a less frenetic lifestyle, where mankind is intimately linked to the environment and completely dependent on inherent understanding of nature. Mr. Mander had a multitude of windmills with which to joust, television was simply the most predominant. Argument One was entitled 'The Mediation of Experience'. Essentially, his point was society has become tangentially connected to innate intelligence. We can no longer trust our senses or intuitiveness to distinguish fact from fiction. Reality is arbitrarily defined and television excerbates the problem. Agrument Two was 'The Colonization of Experience,' where an extremely select complement of influential actors have the power and latitude to reformulate thought processes to create a society of automatons who will respond as directed. By its' ubiquity, television is the perfect vehicle to disseminate a narrow viewpoint to the widest possible audience. With Argument Three, 'The Effects of Television on the Human Being,' Mr. Mander finally began to focus on what I originally thought to be his basic premise. He offered empirical and anecdotal evidence of the negative neuro-physiological effects of extended exposure to television, including physical illnesses. This is one area where the book has been buttressed by subsequent studies over the ensuing years. The last Argument, 'The Inherent Biases of Television,' on the otherhand is the one most ravaged by technological change. Mr. Mander tended to view television as a static institution. Developments like HDTV, stereo broadcasting, other technological advances and the the customary pattern of cost reductions for more sophisticated equipment were beyond his prescience. I would be curious to find out his present take on developments like the internet, or for that matter, VHS recording. He was cognizant of the existence of cable systems but did not appear to attribute much value or potential. In his closing, he admitted elimination of television was unlikely but the major failing of the dissertation is he had no confidence any adaptation save total elimination could be achieved or that any such efforts would be of measurable benefit. As a result, the reader is abandoned with only his cautionary admonishments but no suggested alternative course of action, assuming one is in agreement with his basic premise.
Rating:
Summary: 22 Hours a Week: Are you getting your money's worth?
Review: Americans spend almost 22 hours a week watching television. Holy cow. That would rank third behind sleeping and work. And above spending time with loved ones (while awake and not while watching TV). The benefits you receive from watching so much TV must be pretty good! This enigma warrants a look. Mander's book addresses a wide variety of implications and also digs a bit into the evolution of television hardware. What he finds is important to understand. One approach: We learn by imitation. That is the first step to learning the alphabet, how to act in public, and how to succeed at work. TV does not display loyalty, honesty, and compassion well. That is why shows about volunteers fighting cancer, and shows about people taking care of their sick, elderly parents at home don't get top billings. TV demonstrates the emotions of anger, lust, and jealousy much better; that's why controversy and emotional peaks dominate every episode. So, what are YOU imitating? Another tack: I once heard that if you do something for one hour a day for five years straight, you would be an expert at that thing. I think that's basically accurate. This means you could be a Master guitar player, a Master martial artist, and a Master poet in only five years, if only you would give up television. The first month is hard (my testimony), but it's worth it and you won't miss it after that. Jerry Mander is a little bit fruity and goes off on some strange tangents in the book, but the disciplined reader will work through that to see the deeper, broader messages. The book loses some points for format and loosely assembed scientific evidence, but still has solid points to make. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: It ain't what you watch, it's the way that you watch it
Review: Classic examination of television and its effects by a repentant adman is as relevant now as in 1977. Setting aside all considerations of programming, Mander methodically articulates the threats inherent in the very technology of television, all of which inhibit our ability to relate to the natural world.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: This book is absolutely, without a doubt, amazing in scope. This is the kind of book that you find deep and startling revelations that shock your sense of self. It's that powerful, in certain spots, and Jerry Mander is to be commended for this splendid treatise on what ails mankind towards the end of the twentieth century. While this is a strong polemic against television, it quickly becomes apparent that television is really a symptom of a bigger problem. This problem, according to Mander, is how mankind has removed himself from reality through the creation of a new world of office buildings, cars and other unnatural contrivances that cause mankind (and womankind) to become alienated, frustrated creatures that are quickly losing touch with the environment in which we evolved as living beings for millions of years. Mander likens this alienation to a sort of sensory deprivation similar to those psychological experiments that placed people in tanks in which all sensory input was prevented. As most of us know, when the human senses are cut off, the eventual outcome is insanity. Mander says this is what will also happen to humanity in their new environment. Mander even points to mindless health studies about how breast milk is better for a baby then Similac. He says these kinds of studies show that humans no longer believe their own sensory perceptions. They now have to be told by science what is right or wrong, or healthy or unhealthy. It is this alienation from reality that makes the machinations of television possible. Only "unreal" people could fall prey to television, because television can only deal in unrealities. This is when Mander launches into a sustained attack on television, and what an awesome attack it is. Mander shows how television simply can't be a useful instrument. The technology of television just isn't capable of delivering more than ads and mind numbing pap. In fact, Mander points out that the actual use of television is to act as a delivery device for advertising. Mander gives an in-depth analysis of the tricks that advertising companies use to get people to stay tuned in. You'll certainly look at television is a different way after reading this section. Mander also examines how television can mentally and physically damage the human body. Mander shows how different spectrums of light can have different effects on the human body. Some spectra can be healthy, but others have caused increased cancer risk in lab animals. What's ultimately alarming is the dearth of information that Mander turned up. There just hasn't been that many studies on how constant exposure to non-natural light, such as television light, to know for sure how much damage television can cause. With so much time spent in front of the television, you'd figure more would have been done. Mander says this is proof of how invasive television has become. Mander also mentions that studies proved that television sets emit X-rays. As everyone knows, overexposure to X-rays can kill. This is a great book, and at a price low enough that there is no excuse not to shut your television off and pick up a copy. The book is dated, since it was written in the 1970's. Therefore, there is nothing about the Internet or the effects that that medium may have upon humanity. I would suspect Mander would see the Internet as another step along the path to sensory deprivation and alienation. I think Mander would also have something to say about the recent spate of "reality" shows, shows that would seem to exponentially increase the alienation factor he discusses in this book. I also wonder if more studies on the effects of television have been done since this was written. I wonder why the television media haven't reported anything about this? Mander is one smart cookie, and his education in economics shows in how he presents his arguments: logically and forcefully with little fluff. If you only read two books this year, read this one... Go forth and read!
Rating:
Summary: Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
Review: This book will forever change how you view television. He persuasively makes you ponder aspects of t.v. viewing that are so accurate and yet often ignored in our t.v worshipping culture. His words will strike a cord in all those people who feel like zombies while watching t.v., but continue anyway and berate themsleves for the addiction. If you aren't persuaded to stop watching all television after you read this book, you never wanted to to begin with.
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