Cutting the Cord

The phrase 'cutting the cord' was once a euphemistic way of implying that a parent should stop treating a child as if they were still being carried in the womb and let them begin the development into an independent human being. However, the 'cord' I'm talking about in this case is the cord that powers the portable DVD players that seem to be all over the place these days. I read about a blogger who was strolling through the park over the weekend and looked over to see a couple pushing a stroller along. The child in the stroller was not enjoying th scenery however since he was otherwise occupied watching a movie on his portable DVD player replete with noise-cancelling headphones.

Now as a child I will admit that I watched a lot of television and movies and even today you could probably argue that I take in more than my fair share of the entertainment medium as well. Now granted back when I was a kid, the concept of a portable entertainment device was still something of a foreign concept. Although Walkmen were coming into being, it wasn't a common enough device that everyone had one. I didn't start using one for my walk home from high school until nearly my senior year in high school and even then it wasn't everyday. So when growing up, it wasn't as if we were constantly being entertained on road trips with our own private television programs running in the back. These days it seems that more and more parents are turning to television to be the resident babysitter.

Need to feed your kid? Distract them with the television. Need them to stay quiet in the restaurant? Distract them with the portable DVD player. Need to sleep for a little while? Distract them with television. You see what I'm getting at here? The veritable explosion of the car based or portable DVD market has meant that more kids are leaving the television in the house for the television in the car. Is it any wonder then that so many kids are looking to television for their entertainment and distraction? How can we expect them to focus on anything when the average program only runs 30 minutes and even then it's often punctuated by commercials which only serve to further break up the time needed to concentrate.

I'm not saying that we should all turn kids Amish and have them shun television or videos but shouldn't there be a limit? When my parents took my brother and I to the park, we didn't go with the intention of sitting on a park bench while they walked around so that we could distract ourselves with some movie or something; we went with the intention of running around and having fun. But some parents freak out at even the thought of such activity thinking that their little snowflakes might get hurt and that would be terrible. I don't think it makes sense to shelter your kids quite so much. Why focus their attention on a small television screen while you're out for a drive when you can look at the sprawling world.

Maybe that's why there has been a dearth of original thinking in Hollywood these days. No one seems to have any imagination or originality anymore. There will be the occasional new program or movie or story idea but then that will be it for a very long stretch. Why? Is it because our attention spans have shrunk to the point that we have short term memory problems and cannot create any memories about having seen some of these same stories in the past. Maybe. We shouldn't keep kids from discovering the world or rely on television to show it to them; we can show them just as well if not more. If you show a kid that you're interested in something, I think they'll just as enthusiastically embrace that concept too. You just need to set a good example.