Why Dumb Down Is Bad

727 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How television content influences children

The decline in quality cartoons is an issue that is being noticed by more and more people. As a kid you’re parents would just switch on the tv and leave you to be distracted. Nowadays that hasn’t changed, but cartoon creators strive to involve the whole family in enjoying cartoons. This makes cartoons gradually turn from a kid demographic to one that anyone can watch. Sadly many cartoons still dumb down to appeal to “stupid kids”. This is working and causing dumbed down shows to be shown more frequently compared to more mature shows. The term dumb down is used in the cartoon community when a show thinks viewers are stupid and give them jokes that a four year old could understand. This sounds like it could be ok, but it makes older audience members feel like this is a kid’s show. One example of this that I see is a lot of people are reusing the same idea over and over again. There is a common idea that gets put into almost all cartoons nowadays, the main characters find a new pal that is almost the same as another character, the other character tries to prove that something is wrong with the new one, but they don’t listen. That exact idea has been prevalent in all sorts of media, it is a common idea that “dumb” children could easily understand. …show more content…

This problem has slowly been going away, but many characters are still made just to make some extra cash. The most popular example of this trope is Transformers, the cartoon and movies were based on a toy line to increase popularity in the line. Signs of a character being only for merchandise can be linked to the characters purpose, if a character only makes one or two appearances in the show and has a random catchphrase, he or she is probably made for merchandise. This tactic is used to make kids want a certain toy that has a funny character involved with

Show More
Related

  • The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

    748 Words  | 2 Pages

    It needs, what Gladwell calls, “stickiness.” Gladwell explains how two children’s television shows started a social epidemic by using factors of “stickiness.” Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues used different methods of making their information stick to their viewers, 4 and 5 year olds with short attention spans.... ... middle of paper ... ...

    Read More

  • Kids'stuff Michael Chaubon Analysis

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the 40s, comic books had a large audience. There would have been at least a dozen people in your class who read comics, claims Chabon. A few years later in the 70s, there would have been less than a dozen but more than one or two people who read comics. Now, it is hard to find more than a few people that you know who actually read comics. If you read comics today, you are considered unique. Children are loosing interest in everything that stimulates the mind in a positive way. Chabon claims that the obvious decline in interest in comic books should make authors want to take initiative and fix the

    Read More

  • Pleasantville

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    Popular culture is the artistic and creative expression in entertainment and style that appeals to society as whole. It includes music, film, sports, painting, sculpture, and even photography. It can be diffused in many ways, but one of the most powerful and effective ways to address society is through film and television. Broadcasting, radio and television are the primary means by which information and entertainment are delivered to the public in virtually every nation around the world, and they have become a crucial instrument of modern social and political organization. Most of today’s television programming genres are derived from earlier media such as stage, cinema and radio. In the area of comedy, sitcoms have proven the most durable and popular of American broadcasting genres. The sitcom’s success depends on the audience’s familiarity with the habitual characters and the situations

    Read More

  • Character Analysis: Everybody Loves Raymond

    1001 Words  | 3 Pages

    Younger generations and the more vulnerable in society can be influenced in avoiding peer pressure, but for the individuals filled with wisdom, the shows can reflect based on American modern society. Everybody Loves Raymond and Full House are great shows who faces similar life obstacles a typical person living in the US has today. As a result, most modern family comedy sit-coms are reflecting our society’s generations and the more vulnerable. Based on the success of early family sit coms, American’s adapted to a fast pace lifestyle with the help of modern

    Read More

  • Racial Stereotypes in Television

    1767 Words  | 4 Pages

    molding the minds of young viewers and showing them that the way a certain group of people

    Read More

  • The Redeeming Qualities of South Park

    1218 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first thing people notice, and criticize about South Park is the fact that the show is based around four children who promote crude humor and vulgarity. This display, they say is inappropriate because of the fact that the show is in cartoon format, and thus is attractive to children. After watching the show a little more, they see many other disturbing ideas promoted by the show, including but not limited to: religious ridicule, the promotion of extreme ideals, and childish po...

    Read More

  • Television As The Cultural Forum Summary

    1749 Words  | 4 Pages

    No longer is it common for a single show to present a mass audience a range and variety of ideas and ideologies, which she makes evident in her study of Parks and Recreation which she claims still attracts a heterogeneous audience after the old cultural forum fizzled out with the decline of the Network Era and fragmentation overtook the television industry. Even though the show attracts a heterogeneous audience, she explains that it still does not reach the mass audience of Network Era shows like Father Knows Best and, thus preventing the show from maintaining the sense of cultural collectivity and investment through simultaneous viewing. Thus, the special interest groups that Newcomb and Hirsch view as an important part of the cultural forum and its effects within a society no longer exist in the Post-Network Era. With hundreds of channels and platforms through which viewers can access television programs, it is easy for them to avoid what they deem controversial or oppositional and the necessity of network programs, which could perhaps garner the audience necessary for controversy to erupt, to maintain advertiser support, suppresses potentially edgy or controversial topics for fear networks will lose funding. Thus, it is harder to produce high profile controversy.

    Read More

  • Saturday Morning Cartoon Research Paper

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    Saturday Morning Cartoons Saturday morning cartoons are on the verge of becoming extinct on the major networks. Year after year there are continually less and worse cartoons on Saturday mornings. It was painful and sad but I thought that they had hit rock bottom and they will only get better from here. However, it now seems that cartoons may very well slide out of existence.

    Read More

  • The Sesame Street Sociology

    1934 Words  | 4 Pages

    “In the late 1960s, a television producer named Joan Ganz Cooney set out to start an epidemic. Her targets were three-, four-, and five-year-olds. Her agent of infection was television, and the “virus” she wanted to spread was literacy” (Gladwell 89). The Tipping Point is a book on the study of epidemics- including mental epidemics and trends. Sesame Street, still one of the most iconic shows to date, is an epidemic; the splurge of knowledge that appeared in children after it began to air is undeniable. The show started production in New York in 1968. Shows for children such as Sesame Street support children in school and throughout life by teaching them memorable lessons from helpful muppets. Nevertheless, how and

    Read More

  • Television and Media Essay - African Americans and TV Shows

    1208 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is thought that television producers are just trying to play it safe by sticking to what they know and what they are used to doing. It has been hard for networks to duplicate shows that have satisfied the viewers, such as "The Cosby's", "The Jefferson's", and "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air," Creating this kind of "crossover" audience is essential in a show's success(Hall 12).

    Read More

  • Sesame Street: The Positive Effects Of Technology On Children

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    To begin with, technology makes education more entertaining for children. According to a paper from the University of Maryland’s Melissa Kearney and Wellesley College’s Philip Levine, the Vice President and person behind the Research and Evaluation and Sesame Workshop team of the Sesame Street Franchise, Jennifer Kotler Clarke agrees that one of the main reasons for the positive effects of Sesame Street is that “the program’s laughs and lessons stick with children”(Tankersley 1). The show encourages children, and parents as well, to follow along with their interactive and educational skits. Each skit is unique and memorable with its own themes and messages, and that is a big

    Read More

  • Film Analysis Paper

    1054 Words  | 3 Pages

    I chose to analyze Despicable Me, an animated film geared towards a younger audience, because I was interested in examining underlying theories and messages that this film would be relaying to its viewers. Often times, when watching animated films, children are not aware of these messages, as they are absorbed by the characters, special effects, and humor. But as we have learned throughout this semester, our brains are subconsciously primed by the various surroundings we are exposed to. Since we also studied the impacts of entertainment, such as television and video games, on children, I wanted to see how a popular children’s film might also affect them.

    Read More

  • Advantages And Disadvantages Of Watching Too Much Tv

    1074 Words  | 3 Pages

    For example, a good TV show that helps a child become smart and learn a couple things is Sesame’s Street. Sesame’s Street is kid’s show that’s been airing since the 1960’s. The show is consist of humans and puppets, who use comedy and cartoons to teach children educational things; based off songs and games (Sesame Workshop). I’ve seen this show work for children right in front of my face. Ever since I was sixteen I would go to my grandma’s Day Care and help her with the children. At her Day Care, Sesame’s Street was always being played. The kids would learn so many things from the show. There was one episode here Elmo and the Cookie Monster would sing the Alphabet in a song. It wasn’t like the original song, this one was different and catchy. So catchy that I’d find myself singing along the song too. I could definitely see that catchy song working for the kids too because every time I would see them, I would ask them the alphabet and they said to me, perfectly. So I absolutely disagree with Sach, parents shouldn’t keep their in a box and hide them from TV, instead they should search for the appropriate ones and show it to

    Read More

  • Video Games Are Not A Waste Of Time Analysis

    1306 Words  | 3 Pages

    Steven Johnson (2006), author of Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, argued against the consensus amongst the general population saying, “The most debased forms of mass diversion--video games and violent television dramas and juvenile sitcom-- turn out to be nutritional after all. For decades, we’ve worked under the assumption that mass culture follows a steadily declining path toward lowest-common-denominator standards, presumably because the ‘masses’ want dumb, simple pleasures and big media companies want to give the masses what they want. But in fact, the opposite is happening: the culture is getting more intellectually demanding, not less.” (pg. 9) It is imperative to understand that people do not like new things because it changes what is already known, and that when new mediums become popular they are liable to be compared to the previous medium. Take books for example, there are many studies published that conclude that reading is good for the brain; that reading not only provides information but that-- because of the concentration required to focus on text for extended periods of time and the stimulation in the areas of

    Read More

  • advantages and disadvantages of television for children.

    1326 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...s and funny shows appreciably than past. They have several choices what they want to watch about the program in the same time. Therefore, the children spend more time with them which the kids like. In addition, children can learn bunch of different education by entertaining of television programs.

    Read More

More about Why Dumb Down Is Bad

Open Document