Description Prologue: Our children will spend their whole lives watching TV — they need to know how to use it wisely SECTION 1. How TV Attacks a Child's Brain Chapter 1: Don't Underestimate TV's Impact on a Child's Brain 1. Children who fainted while watching TV 2. How important is interpersonal interaction to a child? 3. Watching TV during meals is bad for children 4. Screen stimulation attacks the frontal lobe, the part that makes us human Chapter 2: TV Images Make Children Simple-Minded 1. TV attacks children's imagination 2. The magical power of TV that puts reason to sleep 3. Raise your child to be a "front-brain" thinker 4. The dominance of variety shows and over-the-top dramas — intense stimulation made for adults Chapter 3: What Happens When Children Lose the Ability to Think Critically? 1. TV that levels children's minds to the average 2. The decline of political thinking ability 3. We can't afford to raise angry adults 4. Losing oneself while absorbed in TV SECTION 2. How TV Attacks a Child's Happiness Chapter 1: TV Turns Children into Consumption Zombies 1. TV upholds the age of consumption 2. Consumer desire was originally invented by department stores 3. TV has taken over the department store's role 4. Children become victims of fads 5. Children become addicted to toys and brands Chapter 2: TV Stirs Up Children's Primal Desires 1. Being brainwashed by materialism while watching TV at school 2. TV stimulates humanity's most fundamental urges 3. TV causes childhood obesity 4. Children become addicted to processed food 5. TV also intensifies sexual impulses 6. TV encourages violence Chapter 3: TV Takes Away a Child's Happiness 1. The frightening nature of the desires TV instills 2. A child's sense of self is destroyed 3. It becomes hard for children to truly love 4. Children grow up to become working machines 5. Let's help our children develop the ability to become absorbed in things that matter SECTION 3. How TV Dominates a Child's Thinking Chapter 1: Adult Stereotypes and Prejudices Are Passed Down to Children 1. TV's reinforcement of bias is especially dangerous for Korean children 2. It instills prejudice against women 3. It creates biased fixed ideas 4. It instills discrimination based on race and nationality 5. Obsession with appearance makes children's lives depressing 6. Academic elitism and worship of English make children unhappy 7. Regional discrimination is passed down 8. It instills a distorted view of history and an obsession with competition Chapter 2: Children's Minds Are Captured by Celebrities 1. Stars become children's role models 2. Children who dream of becoming celebrities can end up ruining their lives Chapter 3: Children's Civic Awareness Becomes Paralyzed 1. Children need to develop the ability to govern a nation 2. We can't afford to raise children who become leaders like Berlusconi Epilogue: This isn't a call to throw away your TV From the Book In the U.S., more and more pediatric clinics have adopted intake forms asking about a child's exposure to mass media. This means that when a child isn't feeling well and is taken to the doctor, the doctor may ask, "How much TV or video has this child watched?" Because mass media like TV is one of the key factors shaping a child's condition, understanding their level of media exposure is necessary for an accurate diagnosis. This shows just how closely connected mass media exposure is to a child's development. - p. 20 TV, by nature, moves fast. It never lets a viewer rest for even a moment — because a bored viewer might change the channel at any time. So TV constantly stimulates viewers to keep them tuned in. Regular programs may be somewhat less intense because they have a story or information to draw people in, but commercials, which lack that, try even harder to grab attention through extreme stimulation. The more we fall into this kind of stimulation, the shallower our thinking becomes. - p. 60 The stereotypes and prejudices widespread in our society are reflected on TV through this very structure. When something that most people already believe appears on TV, it reinforces that belief in viewers' minds, leading even more people to adopt that same way of thinking. Through this structure, adult prejudices are passed down to children...