Children of the Screen

Growing up in today’s society people are exposed at younger and younger ages to influences that previous generations did not deal with on such a wide spread basis. It may be cliché to say that those earlier generations had it so much simpler, but life seemed to move at a slower pace. No cell phones, television was limited, computers were not mainstream and people interacted in a more personal way. Now people are being pulled a million different directions at once. With the capability to have a computer and telephone with you at all times and a thousand different activities and conversations occurring at once its no wonder that people of this day and age are more stressed and busy. Obviously not every person walks around always plugged into a screen but generally screen use and entertainment is extremely high.

I feel extremely lucky to have grown up in a household where we did not get TV until I was a freshman in high school. I now find that I am hardly ever bored and can keep myself entertained and having fun with just little and simple things. Movies and TV are nice escapes sometimes, but that’s not what I rely on to keep myself entertained. I am able to use my imagination and creativity. This is something that seems to be slipping from some people though. I used to nanny for a family that told me when the kids started to get cranky to just place them in front of the TV. Its sad that because kids get sucked into the screen their parents use that to control them.

In the essay Children of the Screen the author Hannah Baylon makes several interesting points. She brings up Charles Darwin and his work on evolution. Baylon claims that people are losing themselves to the environment of the screen or an industrialized setting. The innate ability of humans to adapt to their surrounding is no the cause of lost humanity. Self-fulfillment through social climbing and making money seem to be all that people strive for. She points out that this lost touch with nature and what each individual wants or needs is part of the reason people turn to television.

Personally, I think some of these accusations or claims are a bit overdramatic, but I can see some validity in their formation. Looking at the activities of the average American will surely convince anyone that screen use and absorption into pop culture is all anyone knows. People seem to be losing their own outlook on life and merely conforming to what is presented to them in the media and other outside influences. I think its time for people to step back and re-assess what they want and need from life and if TV and other media sources are really and truly that important.