> I was also in this boat: My siblings and I watched hours and hours of television when we grew up,
Ahoy, Shipmate!!!
Yeah, same boat, same story. I still think there's a larger difference today that makes it "not the same thing at all". Back then you watched what was on, and waited for it to finish. Now kids are seeing 30s shorts with the resultant attention span (that of a flea).
My toddler will get impatient, lose interest and leave the screen with the 1980s cartoons, and he will be glued to Teletubbies until we peel him off the screen.
I reckon that a big part is the attention span (average length of scene, amount of dramatic sound effects and blinking), and probably the newer cartoons are more focused on captivating the age group as well.
So yes, definitely more addictive.
But what I'm more concerned about is that their brains are more malleable at age 1. I read some statistic correlating +1 hour of television per day with +7% of risk of autism. Then again, if you're watching tv 3-5 hours a day, maybe it's not the tv but the lack of every social interaction that didn't happen in those 5 hours. It really is brain rot.
Ahoy, Shipmate!!!
Yeah, same boat, same story. I still think there's a larger difference today that makes it "not the same thing at all". Back then you watched what was on, and waited for it to finish. Now kids are seeing 30s shorts with the resultant attention span (that of a flea).