Just recently me and my brother had finally decided to sit down and watch one of our favourite childhood tv shows together. Avatar – The Last Airbender. This was a show that we shared with our cousins, a show that; when we were kids, we adored. There are many memories of my cousins, my brother and myself watching, laughing and enjoying the show, singing its songs and becoming engrossed in its narrative. It was and still is an enthralling, funny and emotional show still revered by many for its groundbreaking animation and its accessibility to all audiences. So it seemed only natural that eventually we would think to take ourselves back to a simpler time, to once again inspire ourselves with this show we once loved, especially since my transition to uni and my brother entering the HSC, it was about time we began to relive our younger years as an escape, a distraction. So my brother and I sat down and began streaming the first episode, my excitement emanating from me with a childlike positivity, but only ten minutes into the first episode I turned to find my brother, blankly staring and subtly smirking at his phone, scrolling. I was outraged, confused, I paused the show and asked my brother if he was actually interested. He was seemingly surprised and startled that I had stopped the show, like that nothing was wrong, that it was not a violation of any traditional social cues. But this is not just simply a quirk of my home or a flaw in my brothers social skills.
The Kaiser Family Foundation (Rideout et al., 2005) studied media use among 3rd through 12th graders. Children in this randomized sampling spent 6.5 hours per day (44.5 hours per week) engaged with multiple forms of recreational media, including television, videos, music, video games, computers, movies, and various print materials. The time spent “media multitasking” was 28% of media time.
What truly struck me about this encounter, is that it wasn’t like this when we were kids, we weren’t raised with phones, sure we watched our share of tv and played some xbox together, but it was never alone, it was always a social and fun activity for me and my brother. And it wasn’t the same anymore, my brothers for you page and snapchat stories were more important than a show from our boyhood that once deeply connected our bond, watching this happen was in a way quite heartbreaking. Watching Avatar was an endearing family experience that I now can not view the same. On the bright side, this experience has led me to reflect on what was once so special about the show, and how that ties to the simpler times of my life, though the challenge of my brothers disinterest may have dismayed me, my continued enjoyment of the story proves the power of my audience experience over many years. And now I get to look back fondly on what the experience was, what was magical and delightful about the show is no longer the same But the moments and memories of being that little kid sitting on the floor watching this show with my brother will now be more important to me than ever.
Klorer, P.G. (2009). The Effects of Technological Overload on Children: An Art Therapist’s Perspective. Art Therapy, 26(2), pp.80–82. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/07421656.2009.10129742.
