Television and the American Youth

Many people say that television has a negative impact on kids. I'd have to disagree, to a certain extent. Sure, many of the programs on television are horrible for kids, but of course they aren't intended for their demographic. There are plenty of shows that a family friendly, designed with kids in mind. Having said this, I think back to when I was just a wee-one and what I used to watch as a kid.

I was an avid fan of Nickelodeon (Disney was never really my thing). My favorite cartoons consisted of Rocko's Modern Life, Rugrats, Ahhh!!! Real Monsters!!!, and CatDog. I think the show that inspired me the most was Rugrats. In the show Rugrats, Tommy, Phil, Lil, Chuckie, and Angelica were always getting into some kind of mischief. Usually, this was because they were trying to figure something out. After watching that show, I would go do the same thing. This has stuck with me for years, as I'm always trying to figure out how things work, whether it be in nature, technology, etc... Because of my knack for learning new things, I've decided to go to college to be a doctor. If I wasn't interested in learning new things, I probably would have went to college for the arts or something of that nature. Don't get me wrong, they learn plenty of things too, it just doesn't have to deal with the way things work.

Another show that I watched regularly was Rocket Power, a show about kids who were into action sports. I believe this affected me greatly because a few years after I started watching the show I picked up skateboarding. If I had never picked up skateboarding, my life would be completely different. I'm sure everything from my hobbies to the music I listen to would be different. It's actually a scary thought, I couldn't begin to imagine what my life would be like without skateboarding or the music I listen to today. Skateboarding was most definitely had a positive effect on life. If I had never started skateboarding, I'd probably just be another asshole who though he was cool because he was on the football team. That's how all of my friends that I used to hang out with prior to skateboarding turned out. It also made me think about science more. I became fascinated with physics and geometry. A great deal of the both of these are used in skateboarding. This was brought up in a Rocket Power episode. One of the characters was going to try this trick, so their nerd friend ran some tests on his computer and found out it wasn't possible. The kid tried it anyways. Halfway through the trick, a tennis ball was launched out of a lawnmower and hit the kid in mid-air, giving him the extra boost he needed to finish the trick. He didn't know that's why he landed it, so he tried it in a competition and failed miserably.

All in all, cartoons affected my life greatly by getting me interested in science. Even though it was directly, the problem solving led to this interest. They also led me skateboarding, which has impacted my life more than anybody could ever imagine. Because of skateboarding, my mind has opened wider than I could have thought possible. If I had my say, I'd say that cartoons are great for kids. It opens up their imaginations and opens up new opportunities for them. But what do I know, I'm just a kid whose life has been changed by cartoons.