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A Messy Perspective on Child Entertainment Today

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Oklahoma chapter.

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

 

Call this silly or even irrelevant, especially now, but there are lots of noticeable differences in what my younger family members and I were interested in as children. This is a marked difference and I have some things to say about it.

From toys to just about every Disney and Nick show, there is no longer any substance or even genuine interest in what kids watch and do today.  Now, I know there are exceptions especially with teaching and imitating these things with their attitudes, but for the most part what they watch on YouTube and other online streams makes no sense. Kids I have noticed no longer receive important messages of value about the world they tend to tune out through social media.

Times were different growing up in the early 2000s. Toys from kid movies and TV shows such as Bratz and The Powerpuff Girls were widely popular items that had meaning.  Even Disney’s shows and movies like That’s so Raven, The Cheetah Girls, Kim Possible and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody were the epitome of diverse yet quality entertainment.

 

Image via Daily Campus

 

Now it’s just all noise and opinions that are being watched and listened to without critical thought. With so much going on around us, kids that have grown up through this mess of change in entertainment flock to what’s online. That truly bothers me as what is online teaches nothing really the majority of the time.

The entertainment they do watch does cause children to want to be like those personalities that they see like my generation did. Now this only adds on to issues, specifically, for kids in the United States in their early (pre)teenage years now. While not all of them have turned out so bad it’s a trait that most have and is reflected in their attitudes.

What is influencing kids today is not healthy and most people are aware of this. Yet, there is no change in sight for these kids as we try to let them shuffle through expression and self- interest. There is a line to be drawn but nobody draws it anymore because it suddenly is less recognizable.

 

I'm Jaylen, currently a senior Professional Writing major and Women and Gender Studies minor at the University of Oklahoma. I've always been a reader and writing has always become my favorite outlet. I'm a lover of young adult literature and fantasy plus steampunk genres. The angst is what gets me in these stories and the impressive new material they put out there. I'm always at a Barnes and Noble whenever I get the chance or the local bookstore/library. I also collect socks of all sorts and I take it very seriously for a hobby.
Emily Parker

Oklahoma '19

Hi my name is Emily Parker and I am a senior at the Univeristy of Oklahoma! I am from Tucson, Arizona and I am majoring in Business Marketing and minoring in Art. After graduation I would like to travel abroad and pursue a career in fashion marketing!