Why Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood Is the Best View of Screen Time
I watched Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood this weekend. (I know I live for parties.) The beloved children’s show featuring Fred Rogers and his many zip sweaters ( made by his mom! ) Turns 50 this month, so I thought now would be a good time to introduce my five. -year-old daughter of a man whose words still resonate , perhaps more now than ever.
As a child, I sat in my grandmother’s den for many years, watching Mr. Rogers whistle, demonstrating how to use an eraser, and talking about the difficult moments of friendship. While the show never had the energy and stupidity of Sesame Street , it offered a person-to-person authenticity that I can now accurately appreciate. In an encouraging voice, Mr. Rogers looked at the child on the other side of the screen, one whose world may have seemed large and uncertain, and maybe a little intimidating, and said, ” I like you that.” Not what is hiding you. It’s you. It’s you. How wonderful.
However, when I watched the Prime Video episodes this weekend, I was fully prepared for my kid to melt off the couch and announce that she’s so bored and could she please please watch Luna Petunia instead? She has already been inspired by the maniacal hippo, which is today’s children’s programs, where everything is fast and flashes with bright colors. A lot of this is mind candy , and once you finish one show, there are hundreds more waiting for you. Would she be able to sit through a show featuring one middle-aged dude who sits on a bench for a long time, undoing and re-tying his shoes?
Surprisingly, yes. This is probably because she is a big fan of Daniel Tiger and had the pleasure of pointing out the homes of characters she knew (“Oh, this is Prince Wednesday’s house! Lady Elaine lives here!”), But she liked it and we watched one episode after another.
As an adult, I forgot how slow the show was. For example, in Episode 1656, Mr. Rogers “goes up” the steps to his front door and then “comes down.” And then “up” and “down” again. Then he waits for a while for Mr. McFeely to arrive, and when he does, he asks Mr. McFeely to come and then come down too. The climax of the show is when two men visit a mall where they go up and down an escalator and up and down an elevator. I started to get nervous and nervous. “Have I ever sat through this?” I asked myself. In the meantime, I noticed that my daughter began to assemble the puzzle on the floor and then quietly got up to practice playing the piano, which she never did without prompting. Usually, when she looks at something, she sits on the couch with her mouth open, and I have to say her name eight times from two inches from her face to get her out of zombie view.
I’m telling you something about Mr. Rogers .
And it’s not just me. Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a Seattle-based pediatrician, investigated how different forms of screen time affect children’s learning ability and found that showing young children frenetic animations or fast-paced video “makes the mind perceive a reality that doesn’t exist. exists. ” Christakis gave a TEDX talk on this topic .
So we had for a while what we call the overstimulation hypothesis, which is that prolonged exposure to this rapid image change during this critical window of brain development will cause the mind to expect high levels of input, leading to inattention. … in later life. So, as a child, you watched enough of Einstein’s child’s day on the farm, and when you go to the farm at school age, it’s boring; it’s too slow: why doesn’t the sheep suddenly appear in my face? How is it that the puppet doesn’t walk back and forth? Why should I go from here to there?
Christakis found that the more children watched television before the age of three, the more attention problems they have by the time they start school. (His work actually helped shape the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation not to allow children under 2 years of age to use screens and to limit screen use by children under 3.) Now that kids can see a new surprise is coming. a plastic egg every three seconds, it all makes sense.
But Christakis also found that “slow learning programs do not cause attention problems.” And that’s where Mr. Rogers comes in. It has a slow-moving narrative. Scenes change only about three times in each episode. He sends good messages. In one study of 5,000 children, those who watched such “prosocial” programs were kinder and more tolerant. Another long-term study, which involved children from preschool to high school age, found that both Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street had a positive effect. We watched Mr. Rogers for a bit this weekend , and then it became background noise. For a child, it is fun and educational, but not addictive. As a parent, I approve. Boring rules.
While there is no other show that keeps up with the pace of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood – most children’s programming today must be internationally scalable and provide merchandising opportunities – I would say Ruby’s Studio has the same human appeal. … And Daniel Tiger , of course, teaches concepts that Mr. Rogers has always emphasized, such as kindness, patience, and the ability to feel feelings. I am always on the lookout for other high quality shows.
If you want nostalgia check out this. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Mr Rogers ‘ neighborhood, PBS will air an episode of Daniel Tiger this week, followed by a corresponding episode of the episode of Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood that inspired him. The double streak begins today, Monday, February 26th and ends on Friday, March 2nd.