Boldly Going Nowhere 🏳️‍🌈

A dreamer who is actually a recovering realist. ( she / her )

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Fred Rogers met with a child psychologist every week for 22 years to build his show. She shaped everything: every script, prop, and song. The whole point was to give a child's nervous system time to slow down. In 1984, a single regulatory decision ended all of it.

The psychologist was Dr. Margaret McFarland, who co-founded the Arsenal Family and Children's Center alongside Benjamin Spock and Erik Erikson. She and Rogers understood that the prefrontal cortex in children, the part of the brain that controls impulse, emotion, and attention, takes decades to fully develop. At the start of every episode, Rogers tied his sneakers and changed his sweater while children settled in. Those pauses were intentional, designed to help a child's nervous system shift into a calmer, more focused state.

What ended it had nothing to do with child development science. In 1984, Reagan's FCC chairman Mark Fowler abolished the advertising limits that had protected children's programming from commercial pressure. Toy companies moved within months. Between 1984 and 1985, cartoons tied to toy lines increased by 300%, from a handful of shows to more than 40 animated series. In almost every case, the toy was designed first. The cartoon was built to sell it.

Researchers later put numbers to what parents were already noticing. A 2011 study in Pediatrics from the University of Virginia tested 60 four-year-olds across three groups: one watching SpongeBob, which cuts scene every 11 seconds; one watching a slow PBS show, which cuts scene every 34 seconds; and one drawing. Nine minutes later, all three took tests on attention, impulse control, short-term memory, and problem-solving. The SpongeBob group scored significantly worse across every measure.

In the 1970s, children began watching television around age 4. Research from pediatrician Dimitri Christakis found that by 2009, the average age of first screen exposure had dropped to 4 months, as the content got faster and the audience got younger. Researchers separately found that each additional hour of daily screen time at ages 1 or 3 raised the risk of attention problems at age 7 by 9%.

[Boldly Going Nowhere 🏳️‍🌈 @BookEscapist]

@WorldInfinite26 @azure_winds8 https://t.co/lUsAVMVOOb

[Boldly Going Nowhere 🏳️‍🌈 @BookEscapist]

I always thought Suo supported Sakura early on bc he was bored. But with the latest updates, I wonder if it was more purposeful? If he was placed at Furin specifically to get Sakura in charge and in a good place until he was called back after the job was done…? 🍂
#WB210

[Boldly Going Nowhere 🏳️‍🌈 @BookEscapist]

@Fereael All I can picture is a kind, polite JGS who’s contrite over past mistakes and it triggers EVERYONE…

Is it possession? A new talisman? Did he eat/drink something strange??? No one at Jinlintai can rest before the investigation is complete.

[ND Stevenson @Gingerhazing]

Unfortunately, we’ve known about this for a while, and it’s already happened to several other Dreamworks shows as their licenses with Netflix expire. Years of hard work by many talented crews have ended up without a home. We showrunners have no control over this.

[Boldly Going Nowhere 🏳️‍🌈 @BookEscapist]

Did the random project fail yesterday? 😂
https://t.co/9tpeuLFMJa

https://t.co/M6z2cyrFG3

[Boldly Going Nowhere 🏳️‍🌈 @BookEscapist]

Watched NeZha2 dub today
❤️💙 💗

[2134_twone @2134Twone]

当我知道英配居然把“我想试试”翻译成“Just watch me”后
#藕饼 #Oubing #NeZha2

[Game Changer 👐 @GameChangerSam]

Brennan's announcement

[katie kadue @kukukadoo]

✨ microtrope reveal 💞 #booktwt

[Boldly Going Nowhere 🏳️‍🌈 @BookEscapist]

@honeywits I feel obligated to call out this lovely fic with just that flavor of Keith:
https://t.co/kYEYQpWUGT

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

Ray Bradbury; this is how you rebuild an attention span

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

Physics teacher demonstrates how to inflate a bag with a single breath using Bernoulli’s principle.

[📹 Wolf_science]

[Queen Christine @cpettway79]

@levarburton Thank you for fighting for us since “Roots”. This same speech could be given today. Sadly. I an so thankful I got to experience Jim Henson, Fred Rogers, Bob Ross, LeVar Burton & countless others on PBS growing up.

[Liberal Jane @liberaljanee]

[THREAD] This #WomensHistoryMonth, let's not forget how many of our rights were only won in recent decades, and weren’t given by asking nicely and waiting.

We need to fight for our rights.

Here's are a few examples:

[star🧚🏻‍♀️ @_astridstar_]

Yes, I’ll be forever upset this scene didn’t make it into the movie