WATCHING TELEVISION IS LIKE

Many years ago the author heard Neil Postman tell about an assignment he used -- tell students to come up with their own metaphors about watching television. He have been doing it ever since, and he always find it fascinating what people come up with. Take his class from Spring Semester, 2013-2030 students in Media Aesthetics and Analysis at Ithaca College. He tell them to select a metaphor, and then apply it to a show. Technically, they are selecting a simile, television is like. Sixteen of them said that watching television was like doing something. Two people said it was like riding a roller coaster. Two people said it was like opening a present. Two people compared it to baking something. One person said it was like eating a mystery flavor of lollipop. And one person said watching television is like watching the weather -- it is always changing.