"The TV baby shot me"- Drugstore Cowboy (1989)

I know the current paradigmatic school of thought will tell you that TV is what is robbing our children of their fragile little attention spans and creating little hyperactive monsters without conscience; however, it is my opinion that the studies may be lacking in their overall scope, hence in dire need of clarification.
To begin my dissertation, let me state my scientific observations on this matter. First and foremost is the concept of children friendly programming which makes a huge difference in how they react to it and continue to act once they stop watching. A child who has just watched a half an hour of Franklin the turtle will behave far differently than one who has just finished an episode of Power Rangers. It would be foolish of me to say that every child who watches the Power Rangers is going to karate chop their little sister or brother, so I must state this is merely for the purpose of demonstrating a higher hyperactivity level based on the specific programing seen by the child. There was a program Elijah watched as a younger boy called the Upsidedown Show. It's premise consisted of two Australian brothers (?) who act and speak as though they've been awake for the last three days and can't stop bouncing off the walls for the full half hour as a result. It came as no surprise when Elijah would finish the show that he would start attempting back flips off the couch and other crazed behavior. Case one.
Case two and most importantly, is not just the tube watching but the lack face to face human interaction with their family and peers that inevitably follows. Even though most will say that TV is passive listening with little to no brain activity, it actually consists of a series of subtle interactions the children have within themselves when the TV is on. They pick up on the way the characters interact with one another and will formulate scenarios within their head of situations they have or will someday encounter. This interaction the child has experienced, will be carried away in their mind to be experimented with in the non-TV world. It is up to the child's family to make sure that any bad behaviors are ruled out by means of example and rationale. I would venture to say that not all children in the world get that type of necessary interaction to offset to sometimes detrimental behavior the television can spur, which inevitably leads most to falsely conclude that it is the TV alone causing the transgressions.

I will leave you with this advice; limit programs to a half and hour, monitor what they watch and their reaction to it, and make sure they are getting plenty of quality time with the family.


Now that I got that off my chest, here's a video showing my children watching TV :)



P.S. Amelia normally doesn't watch schoolhouse rock, or any other TV, for that matter. It just happened that she and Zach woke up right after Elijah started his video. Please don't shun me, paradigmatic school.