Four arguments for the elimination of television

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1. marcd35Jan 2026
   funny story - I had a job recently that installed DirecTV setups for mostly retirement communities. On almost every service call, I'd show up and 95% of the time, without fail, they'd either be watching Fox News, CNN, or CNBC. It was quite depressing to see 24/7 news stations had completely consumed their lives and became the majority of topics of conversation while I was there.

   I eventually quit the job. I decided I didn't want to be a part of making our society worse by installing these devices that were causing manufactured outrage, hate, and selective truth telling.

   Soon after I left, I found a book while thrifting that came out in 1978 called "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television" by Jerry Mander. I laughed at the title and couldn't believe someone was already arguing for the detriments of TV before I was born. It's very well written and the points he makes are still relevant today.

   From the wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Arguments_for_the_Elimina...

   Mander believes that "television and democratic society are incompatible" due to television removing all of society's senses except for seeing and hearing. The author states that television makes it so that people have no common sense which leads to...being "powerless to reject the camera's line of sight, reset the stage, or call on our own sensory apparatus to correct the doctored sights and sounds the machine delivers".

   Mander's four arguments in the book to eliminate television are:

   1. that telecommunication removes the sense of reality from people,

   2. television promotes capitalism,

   3. television can be used as a scapegoat, and

   4. that all three of these issues negatively work together.

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2. thenerdheadAug 2023
   I really enjoyed Stolen Focus. But that's because I wrote a similar book the same year.

   Some of the most thought-provoking resources on this topic in my opinion are:

   - Amusing Ourselves to Death

   - Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television

   - The Century of the Self

   - The Shallows

   - The Attention Merchants

   - Much of William James philosophy

   If anyone wants a copy of my book "Enough. Seeking less in a world of more." Send me an email and I'll gladly send you a free copy.

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3. dredmorbiusMay 2023
   A consequence of my rather severe news-restriction diet is that I missed news of Minow's death about a week ago.

   I've been revisiting his "Vast Wasteland" speech frequently in recent years:

   <https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/newtonminow.htm>

   It pairs well with Edward R. Murrow's "Lights and Wires in a Box" (1958)

   <https://www.rtdna.org/murrows-famous-wires-and-lights-in-a-b...>

   And Jerry Mander's Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television (1978)

   <https://archive.org/details/fourargumentsfor00mand_0>

   Earlier related submissions (little if any discussion):

   60th Anniversary of the Launch of Telstar Communications Satelite <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32089535> <https://www.rogerebert.com/features/newton-minow-on-the-firs...>

   Newton Minow discusses broadcasting <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33485421> <https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/newton-minow-discusses...>

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4. thenerdheadOct 2022
   > Regarding ads, 51.98% will deal with ads to enjoy a lower price point, 18.81% will pay to remove ads, and 19.40% report deleting apps with ads.

   Maybe an unpopular take, but I believe ads are more detrimental to one's mind than the extra $5 to get an ad-free plan. You end up paying well more than the $5 in rumination and buying useless stuff. If ads become more forced or have no option to remove in the future for any provider, I'm instantly out and will spend more money on books.

   Jerry Mander does an excellent job in his book "Four arguments for the elimination of television" about ads:

   > If you accept the existence of advertising, you accept a system designed to persuade and to dominate minds by interfering in people's thinking patterns. You also accept that the system will be used by the sorts of people who like to influence people and are good at it. No person who did not wish to dominate others would choose to use advertising, or choosing it, succeed in it. So the basic nature of advertising and all technologies created to serve it will be consistent with this purpose, will encourage this behaviour in society, and will tend to push social evolution in this direction.

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5. thenerdheadAug 2022
   This is very surface level. These tips can help for periods of time, but they won't last forever.

   I think the things that do change your perspective forever though are philosophy and even other's philosophies on attention in general.

   Reading books like "Four arguments for the elimination of television" and "Amusing ourselves to death" changed how I view our attention.

   Reading older books like "tao te ching" or "meditations" gave me perspective into how much my attention matters.

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6. thenerdheadAug 2022
   These are great questions. The process of introspection can lead to many new discoveries beyond internet addiction. Why are you the way you are? Why are you in the career you chose? Why are you living the life you live today?

   Not that you should overly become self-aware, but when you are aware of something you are or do without knowing previously, you can change your life in a positive way.

   Some of my favorite reads this year about the topic of the internet are:

   Four arguments for the elimination of television

   and

   Amusing ourselves to death

   These are great books to help you introspect on your technology habits.

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