Facebook and Twitter are social and TV is anti-social, but poor people around the world are learning good things from TV. The reduction of fertility rates among poor TV watchers is a documented phenomenon. The improvement in the treatment of women is another.
"New TV", the kind we hold in our hand and currently call smartphones, will make a even greater impact in the years to come. The main reason is affordability. Maybe three times as many people own phones as TVs. Upgrading to a smartphone is a natural progression.
The power of TV for the under-developed world is: "I want to live like those guys". Foreign leaders, particularly Muslim leaders, are apt to criticize the decadent content of American shows, but the people do become more like us after watching us.
"The portrayal of plausible female characters with few children, apparently, was an important social cue."
- Charles Kenny on why TV, not Facebook or Twitter, is going to revolutionize the world | Foreign Policy (view on Google Sidewiki)
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