Cartoons have been entertaining audiences for over a century. The first cartoon was made in 1908, starring a stick figure which comes to life, alongside other animated objects, created by Émile Cohl; its name is “Fantasmagorie.”
Most children nowadays are told to sit still with a tablet and watch YouTube, which leads to an unrestricted view of the world and its oversimplified media for an average of 5 ½ hours. Modern viewing habits have changed the fate of educational programming like PBS.
Junior Erick Rodriguez sees this with his younger brother.
”He watches brain rot instead of watching cartoons,” Rodriguez said.
This expresses his concern for the effects of simplified media, and the purposeless media being pushed to front pages.
Wyndi Kappes, associate editor of The Bump, conducted a study on children and increasing “iPad Kids.”
“The study found that 40% of children have their own tablet by age two, with that number increasing to 60% by age four…Traditional TV and cable are fading, while more time is spent watching short-form videos on social media sites like TikTok,” Kappes said.
Although social media carries restrictions based on age, children often bypass rules to get into these apps. This can negatively impact their developing mental health. In contrast, apps designed for children are mostly cartoon based and are coming from educational sources like PBS, reducing exposure to harmful media.
Rafael Vasquez, a math and chemistry tutor is a frequent animation viewer, and shares.
“My hope is that in the future, soon we can gain enough funding and support to continue or restart PBS, so we can continue to get education for free,” Vasquez said.
According to ED Source, the amount of students has declined 0.25%, since the pandemic, and has been accelerated by housing and living expenses in Los Angeles and Orange County.
Rodriguez shares the influence that animated movies have had on him.
“Animated movies like ‘Into the Spiderverse’ helped me learn to be myself,” Rodriguez said.
When asked to elaborate, Rodriguez went on to say that animated entertainment like “Into the Spiderverse” had characters that encouraged him to be his most authentic self.
Speaking of being one’s most authentic self, it’s been shown in studies that animation can encourage positive traits such as an eagerness to learn, manners, curiosity, and social awareness that make PBS viewers according to Market Enginuity “more likely to be highly educated, white-collar professionals than the typical viewer” which is why “A vast majority of parents agree that programs on PBS KIDS help prepare their children for success in school.”
The new film and TV production teacher Miguel Mejia had interesting thoughts regarding animation.
“It did help me understand empathy, how to properly interact with adults, friends, social circles and most of them were targeted to like maybe 8 or 12 maybe even younger,” Mejia said.
This belief is further reinforced by Rodriguez who had a similar opinion due to his observations regarding his socially unaware younger sibling whom he believes lacks fundamental social skills he feels could have been gained if he watched educational shows rather than brainrot.
“My little brother, I feel like he lacks basic human lessons, I feel like he should have learned,” Rodriguez said.
From growing empathy to teaching lessons and essential skills, Mejia and Rodriguez highlight the influence the media, particularly animation, has on us. As a timeless medium, animation will continue to inspire its audience around the world. By ensuring that we continue to watch educational videos, we can ensure that the younger generation are also inspired and taught lessons our society finds valuable.
