Are We Really Learning?

While reading Amusing Ourselves to Death today, I was intrigued when Postman predicted students would have learned that “anything worth learning can take the form of entertainment”(154) the more they watched television. I was intrigued because what he claimed has become partially true and can be applied to almost anyone in the way that anything someone sees on television these days can be considered a form of learning, when in reality some are only watching for their own amusement. For example, a commonly known show like The Simpsons at times can teach valuable lessons that people could learn a lot from to apply to their own life situations, but the majority of the audience in reality is simply watching to laugh at what the characters are doing and most likely would not be able to give an accurate moral from the episode if asked. More realistically, shows like Criminal Minds or CSI could teach anyone what they can do when a crime is taking place, how to provide useful evidence for the police, or how to investigate a crime scene if they are a witness or victim, but most are more than likely paying attention to the dramatic scenes taking place within the episode and how the characters are dealing with the situations instead of what they are doing to make progress. On the other hand, there are programs such as Animal Planet or Nova, and even entire channels like National Geographic that provide useful documentaries about various topics that people could learn a lot from. Sometimes those same documentaries even include experts to provide important details and are used in schools today for the purpose of educating students on a certain topic. Overall, what do you guys think? Are all TV shows meant to be their for our entertainment or are some useful to learn from? Possibly, can any show teach something valuable if examined carefully enough? Please share your ideas.