Are books as powerful as TV?

[Scott Free]

Books Can Control Your Mind as Powerfully as Television


Tales from George Orwell's 1984 to the movies Network and Videodrome are all about how people are so controlled by television that they'll do anything. Usually, books are presented as an antidote to a TV-controlled populace. But now a new neuroscience study reveals that books control people's minds and emotions in exactly the same way television does. A group of researchers the U.S. and the Netherlands peered into people's brains using fMRI machines while those people were doing a series of three tasks: reading about something disgusting, watching images of something disgusting, and actually tasting something disgusting. Turns out the same regions in their brains activated consistently regardless of whether they were imagining, watching, or tasting disgusting things. (For the curious: the "disgusting" story apparently had to do with swallowing somebody else's vomit).
In an article published last night in PLoS One, the researchers write:

[This experiment] provides insights into the neural basis of the captivating experience of reading a book: While previous studies on social perception used movies of other people's experiences or arbitrarily colored symbolic cues, our combination of movies and written material in the present experiment demonstrates that reading (mental imagery) as well as watching other people experience what is imagined recruits brain regions involved in experiencing an emotion.

In other words, your emotions are toyed with in exactly the same way, regardless of whether you are reading or watching TV. Maybe that's why social critics of the nineteenth century were always going about the way the masses were having their minds ruined by books, while today's worry about ruination from videogames. Regardless of the medium, the brainwashing remains the same. Source

I don't agree with the conclusion. While books may evoke similar emotional responses as TV they don't do it with the ferocity TV does. Also while a book is likely to have a single author a 30 second TV add is likely to have a whole team of experts tailoring your experience to create an opinion in you based on an experience they created. TV too is a passive medium where you can absorb the experience whereas reading is active and requires effort on the part of the reader. I suspect this gives the reader more oppertunity to think about the experience the author is giving them; where TV the experience is just absorbed without thought (research has shown this starts at about the 1 hour marker). So with TV you just take on experiences and conclusions as if you lived them and had thought them out yourself - a very scary prospect in a "cool to be stupid" society IMO. I don't think the brainwashing is anywhere near the same.

 

[Risus]

I would much prefer to read a book than watch TV or a movie. You need to use your imagination when reading a book and that is lacking when watching the tube.

 

[Nuggler]

I would much prefer to read a book than watch TV or a movie. You need to use your imagination when reading a book and that is lacking when watching the tube.

Yes indeedy, Risus. Case in point:

No Country for Old Men. Read the book and make up your own mind about what the characters look like, how they sound, walk, etc.

See the movie, and decide you wish you hadn't seen it.

Every time I read a book then see the movie, I wish I hadn't. What do they say about people who do the same things over and over, yet expect different results.......?:lol:

:dontknow:

 

[Unforgiven]

I guess it depends on what you read or watch.

 

[karrie]

I think books hold MORE sway over your mind in some ways. Careful editing is done to make sure that they evoke emotion just the same as tv. The big difference, IMO, is the length of immersion, and the credibility we lend to books over television. We are more singularly focused on a book, immersed longer, and most believe them to be more enriching and intellectual, thus, will gladly give them more space in their minds (if that makes sense)

 

[Nuggler]

I think books hold MORE sway over your mind in some ways. Careful editing is done to make sure that they evoke emotion just the same as tv. The big difference, IMO, is the length of immersion, and the credibility we lend to books over television. We are more singularly focused on a book, immersed longer, and most believe them to be more enriching and intellectual, thus, will gladly give them more space in their minds (if that makes sense)

..............(might not), but i wish I'da said it.............:idea:

 

[talloola]

I used to read quite a bit years ago, in bed usually, but now I have a TV in the bedroom,
so the book has gone long ago, I fall asleep with either one anyway.

I pick and choose what I watch on TV very carefully, some sports, lots of documentaries,
geographical shows, and science and how it's made, I love all of them, and have learned
much from all of them.

For now, that will have to do for me, and if and when I do read, it's non fiction, as I
got fed up with made up stories long ago, but I used to like them.

I have this 'thing' about me, that, I can't read while my husband is watching TV, as I
feel I have shut myself out, where as, with the TV, we share comments and are much
more together.

I understand how TV can be very harmful, as there is so much 'junk' on it.

I am a busy person, like to move a lot, can't sit for long periods of time.
When I do my long walks, I see many people sitting on benches 'reading', and that's OK
for them, but I want to walk, not sit and read.

For me,' TV is much more powerful', as I have learned so much about the world, right
there in front me, in full color, on a large screen, and I couldn't get that from a book.

TV is 'just' for the late evening in the summer, and all evening during the winter, and early morning, unless there are important sports
events playing during the day, The Masters, Hockey Playoffs etc. etc.

Oh, by the way, I read the news paper.

 

[missile]

I would watch some TV programs if there weren't breaks for commercials every 5 minutes of show..and it being the same damn ads over and over!!

 

[talloola]

I would watch some TV programs if there weren't breaks for commercials every 5 minutes of show..and it being the same damn ads over and over!!

I usually watch 'two' programs at once, so then, as soon as the commercial comes on, I switch to my other one.
I hate commercials, and don't watch them, except for the 'odd' one that is entertaining.
eg.' sumo wrestlers doing car wash'

 

[Starscream]

I balance the two. I love watching certain shows on TV, but I also like my books too. If I can't find anything good on TV and/or not interested in reading at the moment, I tend to write.