Navigating the New Age of Digital Entertainment
It’s no secret that children’s screen time is at an all time high. Admittedly, past generations were raised on screens as well, what differs is the size of the screen and the accessibility to those screens now.
It is important for parents and young people thinking about starting a family to think about how much exposure they give their children to screens. Modern parents tend to use television and media as a way to calm their children down when they’re fussy or to shut them up when they’re being annoying and overbearing. It begs the question of why no one fights over the TV remote anymore?
The first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010, and as of 2022, over 670 million iPads have been sold. One of the default iPad apps, as well as other Apple productions of the time, was YouTube. Created in 2005 and now with more than 51 million channels, Youtube is one of the most popular platforms on the planet.
As of April 2024, YouTube had 2.5 billion monthly active users, with many creating content for kids. Popular channels include Cocomelon (190 million subscribers) for nursery rhymes, Vlad and Niki (134 million) for toy reviews and challenges, and Like Nastya (125 million) focusing on travel and storytelling.
Since Netflix launched its streaming service in 2007, it revolutionized the industry, followed by Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. In 2013, Netflix further innovated with original programming like House of Cards. Today, top TV shows on IMDb include The White Lotus, Severance, and Reacher.
Good TV used to bring families together, for better or worse. But now, it actually divides a family, especially in a time where everyone has their own little screen in their pocket. Although it does open the room for more discussion at times, those times do not outweigh the vast amount of time we spend away from our family members and/or with our attention on separate content. Not to mention, these “discussions” we are having are never with people outside of one’s age range. Parents don’t sit and watch Cocomelon with their children because they’d rather watch things that interest them.
Encouraging younger generations to watch older content might help bridge these newfound generational gaps. The best part of streaming is that it gives people access to older shows that many have either forgotten or missed. For example, Paramount owns Nickelodeon and features its content on their Paramount+ streaming service. Parents have a chance to bond with their children, to introduce them to some of their favorite TV shows like Rugrats, All That, and The Last Airbender. Other streaming platforms such as, Max and Netflix both have sections dedicated to children’s content, Disney+ has an option for subscribers to organize their content by decade.
Spanish philosopher George Santayana once said, “If we don’t learn from our past, we are doomed to repeat it.” It is important to learn from those who have come before us and to gain an understanding of what they learned. Television and movies are those lessons in the simplest and most unique forms. Take Rugrats, many people see a show about toddlers and the adventures they go on, however they overlook that many of their adventures were actually their everyday lives but made fun with their imagination. The Rugrats also broke gender norms in various forms: many of the girl characters played with the boy’s toys, Angelica’s mother was the breadwinner of her family. Another great example is the daughters of Full House who were raised majorly by her father and his two best friends. TV has taught us many great lessons in the past, it’s time to pass those lessons down to our children, especially since we have the means to do so. It’s time to put down the devices and gather around the TV to watch our show.