Inventor Appraises TV

One of the inventors of television, Dr. Vladimir Zworykin, recently voiced disappointment with his handiwork. “People are hypnotized by it,” he says. “They look at it all the time. It’s contaminating our society.” The extent of such ‘contamination’ may be indicated by the following:

● A nationwide Kung-fu fad is turning some of Britain’s ‘tiny tots into tiny toughs,’ reports the Associated Press. Why? “They are too young to understand what they see on television,” says a London school headmistress. “These little children were beating each other up in the playground.”

● A noted U.S. psychologist and marriage counselor recently declared that he favored stamping every television set with the warning: “Danger: Television-viewing may be hazardous to your marriage.” He says excessive TV watching makes couples passive and their marriages lose freshness, while the violence and callousness they see make them “insensitive to each other” when problems arise between them.

● Another marital therapist, says the Detroit News, relates the increase in adulterous affairs to “accepting the concept of marital relations implied on TV through jokes, comedy sketches and series​—that it’s OK to play around behind your spouse’s back.”

● How useful is TV coverage in learning the merits of political candidates? It merely gives the most attention to “those who exaggerate,” declared Oregon’s Reed College president at a recent regional education conference.