As I was talking to my best friend since childhood on the phone the other day she brought up Sesame Street. "It's no longer recommended for children," she explained, " because Oscar has anger management issues, Bert and Ernie are gay, and Cookie Monster's an addict." "What!" I said, shock not hidden in my voice, " I grew up on Sesame Street!" " I know! Me, too!" Sesame Street had been my favorite show as a very small child (even over Barney) and didn't keep me from learning to read at the age of three and being able to read books alone by the age of five.
" Well, I'm just going to have to buy the dvds for my kids." I said, indignantly. " I am also." my friend threw in. But the point of this story is after I thought about it for a while. I realized that there are technically no more eighties children. Having been born in 1989 we were the last of the eighties generation. As of December 31, 2007 no child under the age of eighteen would be an eighties kid.
And I also thought about how well my friend and I turned out. Even though we watched Sesame Street. We're not addicted to drugs, we don't have any major malfunctions, and if we were gay so what! That's a lifestyle choice. Not a disease! Personally, I always thought of Bert and Ernie as brothers. They sure acted like it. Then there was Looney Toons and Tom and Jerry. I never shot anybody although I did eat a carrot to imitate Bugs (Oh noez! The veggie monsters getted me.) And I may have been guilty of rooting for Tom. I still get nostalgic over Woody Woodpecker, Betty Boop, and those cartoons that had no talking. (Only music and animation.)
But all in all, I don't believe that seeing violent things on television made me a violent person, (I'm a vegetarian), they didn't make me into a murderer, and they certainly didn't didn't prevent me from learing. At age 14 I tested out with an IQ of 107 and later 130. I've heard the average IQ is around 100. Maybe it's not the television, maybe it's those parents who are trying to blame the television for the children's poor behaviour/lack of intelligence.
Blaming the television? Tsk tsk. That my friends, is a bad example.
