I always thought my parents were horrible martinets for not allowing us to watch television during the school week. I managed to sneak in my fair share of late-night Skinemax, but I often was behind the curve when it came to discussing last night's episode of Hey, Dude during homeroom. Of course, I never got that Trapper Keeper I really wanted, either. I had to actually fucking read and play outdoors to entertain myself. I hated every minute of it.
As it turns out, that might be the reason that I am today considered among the smartest men in this chair I'm sitting in. Today's electronic version of the Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has published an outline of a story that was accepted earlier this year. The abstract pretty much speaks for itself:
Methods: Sixty 4-year-olds were randomly assigned to watch a fast-paced television cartoon or an educational cartoon or draw for 9 minutes. They were then given 4 tasks tapping executive function, including the classic delay-of-gratification and Tower of Hanoi tasks. Parents completed surveys regarding television viewing and child's attention.
Results: Children who watched the fast-paced television cartoon performed significantly worse on the executive function tasks than children in the other 2 groups when controlling for child attention, age, and television exposure.
The catch? The "fast-paced cartoon" was none other than Spongebob Squarepants, while the "educational" cartoon was PBS' Caillou. Of course, Spongebob's target audience is a bit older than the four-year-olds used in the study, which Nickelodeon pointed out in their retort to the study:
Having 60 non-diverse kids, who are not part of the show's targeted demo, watch 9 minutes of programming is questionable methodology. It could not possibly provide the basis for any valid findings that parents could trust.
Moral of the story? Nickelodeon is only interested in transmitting their brain-melting rays directly into your child's head, and will use their power to crush Dr. Angeline S. Lillard and Jennifer Peterson of the University of Chicago before they manage to unravel their plans through their devious use of dirty, dirty science. Still, though, it's an interesting study, even if it only measures effects in the extreme short-term. The question now should be: is there any kind of visual stimulation that might be able to actually enhance brain activity after viewing it?
How much TV did you watch when you were a kid? Do you think it affected you positively, or do you wish you had spent more time learning and socializing and reading, etc?
Also, the problems I did have as a child and whatever problems stayed with me into my adulthood were not related to the tv I watched. The problems come from human beings that treated me bad. So I'd say tv was very positive for me, it didn't judge /tear.
I thought this was common knowledge.
You're a meltbrain.
Why thankful? It's not that tv would have killed you or made you stupid. That would have been up to you ;)
I think I watched a fair amount of TV. Cartoons were only on during a specific timeslot, and after that it was homework time. I was heavily into reading as a child, and I guess my only 'wish' would have been to spend more time socializing with my friends outside of school, since I don't think I watched too much TV.
I'm not a scientist but isn't a group of 60 children a little small for proving an effect of a certain activity. I'm not going to argue that SBSP doesn't negatively affect children's learning capacities but this is hardly proof. But then again Fox News told me the other day that Spongebob supports gay rights so....GO SPONGEBOB?
I watched cartoons and played outside with my friends. I'm a genius.
Your parents sound like demons Rorie. Seriously, no TV during the week? Damn.
I'm with you. I love Spongebob.
:O Exactly the same thing I was going to say!
I was, to quote David Hyde Pierce in Wet Hot American Summer, an "indoor kid." I watched TV, played videogames and such, but I also played with toys, read occasionally, even went outdoors and studied like a madman. Overall, I'm going to say if anything screwed me up, it probably wasn't the cartoons.
Turns out, Spongebob melts the brain of their true demographic... because they're grown men smoking drugs!
I used to watch a lot of tv when I was a kid and I don't really think it melted my brain. I'm pretty smart and have the grades to back it up. I am kind of introverted, but I think my hobbies were formed as a result of that, rather than them being the cause.
@VilhelmNielsen: I get high from just watching SpongeBob. It's a totally cosmic show.
I can see it, the show is a little "manic" when compared to the insane amount of children's shows that are absolute shit. Not that this makes me a qualified expert, but my 5 year old has more focus on tasks when she isn't watching any T.V. for a while, the content seems to be a non factor.