Consider your personal impressions of the following generations: your great-grandparents', your grandparents', your parents', your own, and the generation below yours.
Now consider this: what sort of childhood did each of them typically lead?
More specifically, honing in on the last three groups (our parents', ours, and the kids' born in the mid-to-late 1990s or after), consider this: what sort of children's television programs did they have available to them, and how likely were they to watch television?
Personal opinion? Our parents had so-so aesthetic quality but high moral/art/educational/[whatever] quality. Naturally, the aesthetics improves with time, but I think it's worth pointing out that our generations' children's television programs weren't all that different in their visual look and feel from those of the 1970s. (Compare the original X-Men cartoon of the '70s with Teddy Ruxpin or David the Gnome of the '80s for comparison.) That stated, our television had declining "high art" value. It was wholesome in its own way (e.g. Teddy Ruxpin, Care Bears, what have you) but compared with our parents' television choices it probably felt to them like Teletubbies would feel to us: mindless blah.
But when I consider what today's children are bombarded with, I really do fear for the future of this country. We grew up with Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Even TMNT was several orders of magnitude more educational or enlightening than was Rocko's Modern Life, CatDog, Spongebob Squarepants, or Ed Edd & Eddie. In other words, Nickelodeon is one big pile of rubbish which'll kill your tots' brain cells. But even bastions of hope like PBS have filled their slots with vapid children's programming: every time I see Maya & Miguel, I think to myself, "This is a show which seems like it belongs on CBS's Saturday Morning lineup. And that's not something to be proud of."
One last bit of perspective: consider what percent of people were literate and to what degree they were literate in each generation. I won't push literacy as the be-all end-all of education, but it's a sad state of affairs when I log on to Youtube, and see words like "sank" (snake), "corse" (of coarse), "llie" (like), "beacuase" (because), "babys" (babies), or "wold laught" (would laugh). Some of these can be accused of being typos (believe me, I've got many "futes" [flutes] and "the first times" I chose to omit), but some of them, likes "this proofs" [proves] cannot be explained away by brbkthxbbq luvyababe script-kiddy-turned-cellphone-girl chat abbreviations nor can they be explained away by being typos. "Proofs" is not a typo for "proves." "prooves" could be. "prves" could be. "Proofs" is one hell of an amazing typo for "proves." ;p
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8 comments:
Rocko's Modern life was brilliant. Don't diss it. Honestly, it really wasn't even a kid's show. There was a lot of bawdy or even outright crude humor that was clearly intended for adults, which is why it was eventually taken off the air.
We grew up with Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Even TMNT was several orders of magnitude more educational or enlightening than was Rocko's Modern Life, CatDog, Spongebob Squarepants, or Ed Edd & Eddie.
For one thing, that's apples and oranges. Those two sets of shows are targeted at two different age groups. When I was 5, I was watching Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street (along with a lot of less-edifying shows); when I was 12, I was watching Rocko and CatDog, and wouldn't have dreamed of watching a children's show like Mr. Rogers.
You're also ignoring the really stupid shows that were on when we were 5, like The Snorks. That show was at least as stupid as SpongeBob, and I watched it at least as much as I watched Sesame Street.
Also, I really don't see any indication of declining literacy. Now maybe there are a lot of people out there who are not as good at written communication as you or me, but that doesn't indicate an actual decline. I am reminded of an article from the Chicago Sun-Times originally published 40 years ago (recently republished), in which a school teacher was decrying the "declining literacy" of his students, citing examples of poor spelling and grammar that make your YouTube quotes look like paragons of perfect prose.
I don't even remember The Snorks. As for Rocko's Modern Life, I disagree with both of you in that it was definitely marketed as a kid's show. It was no Simpsons, even if that's what the two of you are saying it should be seen as. It was on Nickelodeon, for Christ's sake.
Say what you will about CatDog, but how dare you besmirch Rocko's Modern Life, Spongebob Squarepants and Ed Edd & Eddie!
I will say the current generation seems to be missing a good, solid science program. We had Mr. Wizard, Beakman's World, and then the venerable Bill Nye the Science Guy. Kids today have...Myth Busters? Don't get me wrong, that's a great show, but it's not quite the same.
Is Bill Nye not on the air any more? That's a shame.
Nye has a new show "Stuff Happens" on Discovery Planet Green, but who gets that channel?
"I don't even remember The Snorks. As for Rocko's Modern Life, I disagree with both of you in that it was definitely marketed as a kid's show. It was no Simpsons, even if that's what the two of you are saying it should be seen as. It was on Nickelodeon, for Christ's sake."
Rocko may have been marketed as a kid's show, but it really wasn't, if you bother to look closely enough.
I'd rather watch Rocko than the Simpsons, too.
True, Rocko had a lot more in common with Ren & Stimpy than Spongebob.
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