I used the above Twilight Zone episode to tie into my Cold War Unit. We were discussing the impact of mass media on culture – more tvs, transistor radios, etc. I remembered watching this episode as a kid and wanted to share it with my students. It turned into a great skills-based lesson that only took about 35-40 minutes.
Student task-
Write down as many pieces of evidence you can that tells you something about the society in which this TV episode was made.
Evidence that we found:
Lack of diversity – actors/characters were all white
H-Bomb
Paper newspapers and reading paper books – students thought it odd how involved the main character was with reading paper items
Technology – caught reading books – today, people are caught on phones.
No dead bodies – TV was less violent than say, the Walking Dead
Smoking of cigarette
Tape/voice recorder
Payphone
Manual cash register
Fear of a nuclear holocaust