The worst kind of drug is the one you give to someone else for your own benefit.
In her landmark book, The Plug-in Drug, Marie Winn argued that television is a dangerous drug because it is one that parents often give to their children for their own benefit. Winn wrote:
Surely there can be no more insidious a drug than one that you must administer to others in or to achieve an effect for yourself (page 15).
Do you hear what she is saying? Winn argued that television can be a narcotic that we administer to our children to buy us time while we try and get things done. According to Winn, the biggest danger of television is not the content – – -even if we watch the right things. Television does our thinking for us, it is a sedentary activity
I am not saying all television is wrong. Once when the flu visited our house (though uninvited); one of our children watched Anne of Greene Gables during recovery. It was a good thing.
But, let’s ask ourselves. Do we regularly administer videos, even good ones, to our children, in order to buy ourselves peace and quiet.
Do not let television be a drug that you administer to your children for your own benefit.
