TV

On the subject of tv and what it does, Shirky seems to agree with the hypothesis that watching too much tv causes “higher material aspirations” and “social surrogacy,” on the other hand, there is also a positive aspect that Shirky did not cover.

I remember a time where there were TVs and VCRs, no computers and laptops, VHS tapes and cassette tapes, before DVDs and CDs. I think knowing what it is like to have only tv and both tv and the Internet helps us understand the similarity and differences.
When I was growing up, tv took up a lot of my time. One thing that I think the tv helps promote is learning languages, especially for immigrants.

My mom is an immigrant from China and I was born in the US. As a kid, going from speaking Fuzhounese (a dialect spoken in parts of Fujian) at home to English at school can be a bit hard especially when I first started out. I believe that tv did help quite a bit in learning the English language along with going to school.

Like most children born in the US where English is their second language are quick to adapt, especially if they start early so speaking English fluently becomes no longer a problem.  However, growing up in the suburbs of Ohio, dominated by the English language, there was barely anyone who spoke Fuzhounese to me, except my family and relatives.  Since Fuzhounese is more of a dialect, it would be hard to communicate with other Chinese speakers because most speak Mandarin (parent of the other dialects) or Cantonese (a dialect spoken in mostly Hong Kong).  My mom wanted me to learn to read and write mandarin so she sent me to a Chinese school where they have 2hr class every Saturday.  This was when I was in middle school and since I did not speak Mandarin with my mother, the basic building blocks that helped me understand Mandarin and Cantonese was TV.  By watching video tapes and dvds of Chinese dramas and movies, I was able to comprehend what people said in Chinese school.

TV can be educational and helpful as long as it is our goal, much like the Internet, like Shirky mentioned, cognitive surplus is only generated when people choose to do so.