I don't have the attention span to finish reading this...
Dr Phil is one of the few elite programs on television today that makes it on my list. Joining the good old doc are other luminaries such as Neighbours, Channel 9 News, Today Tonight and Teletubbies - truly rare programs that serve little other purpose but to unapologetically steal your time and kill braincells.
Yesterday, however, Phil decided to tackle something other than throwing free gifts and books at his audience. Yesterday, Dr Phil address the behemoth that is ADD. Attention Deficit Disorder. Apparently 12 million Americans are being diagnosed with ADD each year! 12 million hyperactive kids!
I've noticed that in Australian schools you don't need an amazingly good arm to throw a rock and hit a kid 'diagnosed' with ADD. Dr Phil rightly called it the epidemic of our generation. The most telling point was that ADD is also the most overdiagnosed illness of our generation. Its a destructive jingle that doctors love to sing "Difficult kid, heres the drug." Repeat.
Many people seem to be blaming the parents, the degredation of parental standards, bring back the belt, in the good old days, insert overly used complaint here. I tend to think TV might be the culprit.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm a filmschool graduate. I live on a TV diet in the hours per day, I strongly disagree that violence on TV creates violence in kids, however I have a sneaking suspicion that it might affect their attention span.
Lets work on the assumption that our kids like the simpsons or simpsons related programs. That would mean watching Channel 10 in Australia for at least 2 hours a night, 14 hours per week. Minimum. Mix in the generalisation of TV as the modern babysitter. Season with a couple of good series, Family Guy, The Wiggles for the younger generation. We even watch reality TV of people living their lives instead of living our own. End result = A huge amount of TV consumption.
Now lets stop for a moment and realise that on average, a television cut occurs every 3 seconds. In plain English, once every three seconds you'll be shown something entirely different! This is happening, on average, every time you switch on the box. Our calculations also need to account for 10 minutes of adverts for ever 30 minute program. That's 10 minutes of 30 second ads, all pushing something entirely different. Different - Music - Different - Product - Different - Shot - Different - Actor - Different - One Time Discount - Different - Credit Card - Different - Do it now!
Now compare this to a poor teacher, desperately trying to control a class with a text book and a data projector. Its no wonder our kids don't have the attention span to finish reading this....
Yesterday, however, Phil decided to tackle something other than throwing free gifts and books at his audience. Yesterday, Dr Phil address the behemoth that is ADD. Attention Deficit Disorder. Apparently 12 million Americans are being diagnosed with ADD each year! 12 million hyperactive kids!
I've noticed that in Australian schools you don't need an amazingly good arm to throw a rock and hit a kid 'diagnosed' with ADD. Dr Phil rightly called it the epidemic of our generation. The most telling point was that ADD is also the most overdiagnosed illness of our generation. Its a destructive jingle that doctors love to sing "Difficult kid, heres the drug." Repeat.
Many people seem to be blaming the parents, the degredation of parental standards, bring back the belt, in the good old days, insert overly used complaint here. I tend to think TV might be the culprit.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm a filmschool graduate. I live on a TV diet in the hours per day, I strongly disagree that violence on TV creates violence in kids, however I have a sneaking suspicion that it might affect their attention span.
Lets work on the assumption that our kids like the simpsons or simpsons related programs. That would mean watching Channel 10 in Australia for at least 2 hours a night, 14 hours per week. Minimum. Mix in the generalisation of TV as the modern babysitter. Season with a couple of good series, Family Guy, The Wiggles for the younger generation. We even watch reality TV of people living their lives instead of living our own. End result = A huge amount of TV consumption.
Now lets stop for a moment and realise that on average, a television cut occurs every 3 seconds. In plain English, once every three seconds you'll be shown something entirely different! This is happening, on average, every time you switch on the box. Our calculations also need to account for 10 minutes of adverts for ever 30 minute program. That's 10 minutes of 30 second ads, all pushing something entirely different. Different - Music - Different - Product - Different - Shot - Different - Actor - Different - One Time Discount - Different - Credit Card - Different - Do it now!
Now compare this to a poor teacher, desperately trying to control a class with a text book and a data projector. Its no wonder our kids don't have the attention span to finish reading this....
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See you soon. Good title, especially for me.
katyzzz