Tv Addiction Essay

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Marie W i n n .... TV Addiction w w w w a w w w a a w w w w w w w a a w w w a a a a w w a a a a a w w w a a a a w a w w a a a w w a a. w a w The problem of addiction is a serious one in our society, and we usually associate the word with dependence on drugs or alcohol. In the following essay, Marie Winn uses the definition of addiction to analyze the effects of our society's dependence on the most popular pastime: watching television. wryly with ironic humor E. B. White American essayist and author of Charlotte's Web denote indicate i The word "addiction" is often used loosely and wryly i n conversation. People will refer to themselves as "mystery book addicts" or "cookie addicts." E. B. White writes of his annual surge of interest in gardening: "We are hooked and are making an attempt to kick the habit." Yet nobody really believes that reading mysteries or ordering seeds by catalogue is serious enough to be compared with addictions to heroin or alcohol. The word "addiction" is here used jokingly to denote a tendency to overindulge in some pleasurable activity. 2 People often refer to being "hooked on TV." Does this, too, fall into the lighthearted category of cookie eating and other pleasures that people pursue with unusual intensity, or is there a kind of television viewing that falls i nto the more serious category of destructive addiction? 3 When we think about addiction to drugs or alcohol, we frequently focus on negative aspects, ignoring the pleasures that accompany drinking or drug-taking. And yet the essence of any serious addiction is a pursuit of pleasure, a search for a "high" that normal life does not supply. It is only the i nability to function without the addictive substance that is dismaying, the dependence of the organism upon a certain experience and an increasing inability to function normally without it. Thus a person will take two

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