One mom's look at life in the slow lane. By day, corporate drone in a cubicle world, by night (and early morning), human clown, race car driver, pony and milk source.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Mean World Syndrome


Not much from my college years has stuck with me...but one term seems to hold tenaciously on...perhaps it is my mistrust of television, and for that matter, the media in general. Mean Word Syndrom, aka Media Induced Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, is a very scary phenomenon. In a nutshell, it is when the ingestion of news media skews your view of reality to the extent that the world appears as much meaner, violent, abhorrent than it truly is.

The sad thing is that I know someone who has been almost paralytically damaged by news consumption. They hardly venture forth from the confines fo their home and as a result I can only venture to guess their quality of life has been severly damaged as a result.

Why do I bring this up....Well - Of course on my high and mighty soap box I spoke loud and clear that my son would not be watching any TV until he was 3 years old, and then it would be very, very limited. Problem: He's 23 months old and screams bloody murder every time we try to brush his teeth. So, in desperation found out there is an Elmo video (he LOVES Elmo, although he's never watched Sesame Street) which espouses the joys of teeth brushing. Well, we bit the bullet, got the video and since it keeps my little guy engrossed for 52 minutes and 36 seconds in one stretch (a miracle) I've been abusing the video, so that I can get things done.

I guess the consolation is that Elmo's world is strange, but not violent.

1 Comments:

Blogger pineapple said...

mamacher, you held out for a long time and that is quite an accomplishment. especially in the visually oriented world that we live in. think of it as teaching your child to pay attention to something for a long time instead. concentration is a good thing. and besides, elmo rocks!

p.s. you should blog more often!

4:57 AM

 

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