So, since I have been writing periodically a memoir of the 70’s and childhood, it was very different then compared to now. Especially the toys. Most of the toys we had were imaginal, vs. technological. When we think of the power grid and the energy it takes to run all this stuff — well? In the 70’s kids basically had transistor radios and television but there were very few channels. Maybe thirteen channels and that was all that was available, for everyone.
Now kids have their own TVs, own computers, own “everything.”
This is not a shared experience, though. It is a solo experience.
Here is a link to another article I have referenced before by Robert Sardello from the NYT, where there is more on this subject.
I just read this article from the NYT on how communication itself has shifted — and this is because of the rise of all the electronic toys. I think this started in the late 80’s – 90’s — for most people — buying so many.
Here is that article on children and communication.
Especially important in that article is how empathy is changing?
…Today’s youths may be missing out on experiences that help them develop empathy, understand emotional nuances and read social cues like facial expressions and body language. With children’s technical obsessions starting at ever-younger ages — even kindergartners will play side by side on laptops during play dates — their brains may eventually be rewired and those skills will fade further, some researchers believe…
When I think about how we learned back in the 70’s, it was a kind of “group” learning? Because there were so few media things available at the time. For instance, people would watch say, “The Movie of the Week” with their kids?
Maybe the whole country was watching the movie of the week — in a way like we all waited for say, a Disney film on Sunday nights. I have talked before about how going to movies was a way the collective audience “learned” emotions — by laughing or crying together ensemble.
In thinking about the article above, how can the collective “learn” the sound and look of emotions from each other.
My sense of this is dialogue. That tx planner I have been writing and thinking about would use Art and Narrative therapy together.
I didn’t want to link the video but, there is one in youtube called Hope is Emo if you search. I watched two of them — the first was called “the words are” — about chalk dust. It’s difficult to tell whether this was a real or just “acted” sketch. If real? Read the above articles from NYT after viewing the chalk dust piece.
VALENTINE BONNAIRE - WRITER 