Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Have you ever wondered how watching TV affects you? Or your kids? Well, I don’t have a simple answer to that here, but I discovered something pretty frightening today I want to share with you. It might not tell us whether or not we reflect what we see on TV, but if it even hints at reflecting our changing culture, I reckon we need to ask ourselves some serious questions.
UCLA has done a whole bunch of research about the TV programmes children watch, and what they promote as good ideas – how they tell children to be successful in life, if you like. In particular they tracked how these changed over the past few decades, looking at popular kids shows in the 60s right through to today.
And guess what they found. Here’s a tiny quote:
The top five values in 2007 were fame, achievement, popularity, image and financial success. In 1997, the top five were community feeling, benevolence (being kind and helping others), image, tradition and self-acceptance.
Which five would you most like? The whole news release is here.
