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With the light speed pacing of so much of the media which influences our children’s attention spans today, I thought I’d talk about something very surprising I found out about my own children. THEY ACTUALLY CAN SIT AND WATCH INTERESTING MEDIA FOR LONGER THAN 35 and a half seconds! I know. Scared the heck out of me but it’s true! Based on my personal, pesudo-scientific experience, it appears that nurture can be stronger than MTV nature. Case in point: Daddy’s Picks.
Some time ago, when my children had not yet tasted the twinge of tweenage angst and they were still quasi-content being their own age I thought I’d try a little experiment. Being the self professed “sly fox” (read: Nerd/Geek) that I thought I was at the time I candy coated my experiment with the title “Daddy’s Picks.” I gathered the three little ones around me and stood before them like a Griot in front of a campfire and captive band of tribesmen, then in dramatic fashion – I felt like I needed to really sell this idea – told the story of these awesome movies I had loved when I was their age *connecting it to them in this way, their eyes grew wider with anticipation* and how, on a regular basis, we were going to make a special evening of watching those old but thoroughly awesome movies. The look on their faces seeming to beckon to me, “We like where this is going. Tell us more!” And I did. “What we’re going to do is make a whole production out of this! We’ll hit Blockbuster, rent a vid, pick up some popcorn or candy and Hansen’s All Natural Sodas (ahem, product placement) and then come home, settle in and watch one of Daddy’s favorite childhood movies!” Their faces radiated with sheer excitement at the thought of sugary confections, buttery popping corn and time on the couch with dad and with that it was sold. They were sold. We were to start this new tradition called “Daddy’s Picks” and I would actually learn something very interesting from it.
In the next few months we watched quite a few of my childhood favorites. I was worried at first as I thought to myself, “I wonder how these little 30 second attention span having human beings are going to sit still long enough for movies which were a little slower to develop than today’s tv and film?” After the first night’s viewing of a Daddy’s Pick, my concerns were quieted by their absolute enjoyment of the event we had created. They loved our time together, but more importantly they actually enjoyed the film. A lot. By the end they were already asking me when we were going to do another Daddy’s pick and what the movie would be. I was having a blast! I was waxing nostalgic but having the privilege of watching my children develop an affinity for movies I already had a love for and IT. WAS. COOL! We watched flicks with titles like, The Dark Crystal and The Last Starfighter. We did the Star Wars Trilogy (do I even have to say which set?) and the Indiana Jones series, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Labyrinth. They loved it all until we got to Popeye. I swear I seem to remember enjoying that as a kid, but wow, it was hard to sit through as an adult. It really wasn’t that good and after I told my dad about that night’s viewing he actually reminded me how bad it was and how he hadn’t enjoyed watching it with me when I was a kid either.
After watching all these slower movies, I realized that there’s quality content, kids will watch. Maybe not toddlers, but some young children will sit long enough to watch a well developed storyline. So, to answer the question I posed at the beginning, yes, children’s attention spans are that short….unless you take the opportunity to introduce them to other experiences which invite their imagination to get involved. I know there are some people who will say that they have a child so rambunctious that he or she won’t sit still for anything longer than a YouTube clip or music video but have you tried? More than once?
About Tshaka Armstrong
RT @DShepherds: NEW POST: Our own Tshaka Armstrong on a geek project w/ his kids that turned n2 a luvd family tradition http://tinyurl.c …
RT @DShepherds: NEW POST: Our own Tshaka Armstrong on a geek project w/ his kids that turned n2 a luvd family tradition http://tinyurl.c …