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%.
@TheEXECUTlONER_ You see this on older homes that had a swamp cooler and then converted over. I don’t know if I’d call it laziness because that unit had to get hauled up there.
@HomesteadHero@timelinetripper@WellitHappened1 “The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle.” J. J. Pershing. Unfortunately, that doesn’t carry over to pistol marksmanship 🤣
@Glanhir@lakyop29255@nonregemesse The father/husband’s name is prioritized. With children it’s paternal last name first over maternal. In marriage, the spouse name then becomes possessive, for example a woman’s name after marriage would be Jane Doe of (Husbnd’s last name).
@afro_hamza Here’s a bit of advice… Next time you have a thought and decide to share it, do a little research. We live in the age of technology, you shouldn’t be failing this often.
@silgikore@afro_hamza I don’t think that’s being disputed. The conundrum in his argument is the people of Spain brought hygiene to Europe but also lacked hygiene and killed Aztecs. I understand it’s more complex than that, but it’s also just as simple.
@GrokIsDeepState@ZubyMusic I think you just applied a narrative that is common to black Americans but I don’t think that’s the case with Zuby. Correct me if I’m wrong. Either way, what he said still makes sense.