Fe.

[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%.

[Lyth ♠️ @Lytherian]

do hamsters not have bones

[bryson. @iambrysoncarter]

Megan Thee Stallion is really on a run we haven’t seen in a very long time. She’s performed at the Oscars, Grammys, and now Tony’s?!? Like performers don’t have this range or reachability anymore. She’s bringing back actual superstars.

[Black Media Hub ✊🏿 @BlackMediaHub]

say their names

[vids that go hard @vidsthatgohard]

His bloodline built the pyramids

[Praise @tufpraise]

To be super clear, this is how rapists talk to
women

[1eozim @1eozinho01]

Ele claramente quebrando a quarta parede e tentando bater na gente

[julia | not such an innocent girl @gioantox]

mind you these videos are 20 years apart and they're still acting like two idiots with each other 😭

[Austine @theereal_one]

she was really feeling him

[Lira Mercer @Lira_Galore_]

You ever seen a nigga skedaddle ? 😭

This is what I envision.

[emmie. ✊🏿🦝📼⚽🦸🏿 @emeraldappul]

so RIDICULOUSLY walkable that spongebob did all this shit without a single boat in sight

[FearBuck @FearedBuck]

Bobbi Althoff shows off her new look after being styled by Sukihana.

[Jenni @hashjenni]

Does this truck need gas money?? I’m in.

[saith ꕤ ⸆⸉ @eternalsaith]

a moment of silence to pray for Trump

me asf:

[shipz ✧ @heyshipz]

WHOEVER TOUCHES THIS POST WILL BECOME FINANCIALLY STABLE THIS YEAR. AFFIRM AMEN!!!

[JOLLY J✨ @DynamoSuperX]

monster house was a kids movie but these writers were fucking pushing it.

making kids witness this old mf have a heart attack in 1st person was diabolical. 💀

[Antidepressant Content @depressionlesss]

My grandma hired a "security cat" to protect the crops on our farm

[Ichigo Niggasake @SomaKazima2]

Shutup bitch we love you

[Redd @ReddCinema]

waking up to this at 3am as a child literally alters yo brain chemistry forever