In the most potent cases, professors would find it totally laughable that their graduate curriculums be facilitated by TV watching rather than books.
If someone told me that the only way to learn linear algebra or calculus would be from a textbook I'd have believed them when I was at university (about 25 years ago). If someone told me that now I'd send them some great YouTube content that explains it far better than any math textbook I've ever seen. I think that says more about professors than about how people are able learn difficult subjects.
I don't think books are going to go away, and I think it's important to cultivate an enjoyment of reading in children so they can read complex subjects later in life, but the common line that "books are better for you than TV" in adults who aren't reading for education is just something that I think is hard to justify. People always end up comparing low-brow TV with high-brow books to show how TV is bad. That's what I think is unreasonable.
If someone told me that the only way to learn linear algebra or calculus would be from a textbook I'd have believed them when I was at university (about 25 years ago). If someone told me that now I'd send them some great YouTube content that explains it far better than any math textbook I've ever seen. I think that says more about professors than about how people are able learn difficult subjects.
I don't think books are going to go away, and I think it's important to cultivate an enjoyment of reading in children so they can read complex subjects later in life, but the common line that "books are better for you than TV" in adults who aren't reading for education is just something that I think is hard to justify. People always end up comparing low-brow TV with high-brow books to show how TV is bad. That's what I think is unreasonable.