Corruption or Completion

After the Death of Childhood: Growing up in the age of electronic media, by David Buckingham, discusses the destiny of the youth in the 21st century. Buckingham describes the changes in how society views childhood, and how technological advances influence those views and the children themselves.

Juvenile Justification

Chapter 1, “In Search of the Child,” explains how society classifies childhood, and the ambiguity of those classifications. First of all the definition of childhood depends on the society and shifts in relation to the opposition to adulthood. Buckingham notes how the media historically portrays contradictory images of childhood, both as child-like adults and adult-like children. Technological advances throughout history influence how childhood is viewed by society and how children fit into that culture.

Hurrying Down

As Alice ventured down into the rabbit hole, children of the era were taking steps into new worlds through literature. Children’s literature became more popular, and reading levels were the censors to the adult world of literature. Movies and television removed that censorship.
Buckingham painfully goes on, in chapter 2, to review literature regarding media and children, and how media is the cause of the decline of civilization. Most literature focuses on the “lost” youth, and a reminiscence of childhood.

David Elkhind believes that children are being “hurried” through childhood by dealing with family stress and the pressure to succeed, in his book, The Hurried Child (1981). Elkhind emphasizes the need for children to progress slowly through developmental stages.
Elkhind also feels that the media breaks down the “intellectual barriers” and exposes children to material that they are not intellectually ready for. In the book, Children without Childhood (1984), Marie Winn, Children without Childhood discusses how social problems affect children and how media allows children to enter the secret life of the adult world. The decline of society is the result of permissiveness.

With the advent of computers, children are exposed to additional material and responsibilities. Barry Sanders’s book, A is for Ox, and Neil Postman’s text, Technopoly, explain the detriment computers have on the development of children. They are even more in danger because there is less monitoring and more access to a variety of media. The video “The Perversion of the Childhood by New Media” mimics much of their beliefs.



The Light at the End of the Tunnel

All this gloom and doom is challenged by more optimistic views that the “electronic generation” can unlock knowledge for children who are undaunted by technology. Digital technologies are inevitable, as Don Tapscott reveals in his book, Growing Up Digital. Technology creates a society that is more democratic and collaborative, that will develop into a “generational explosion” that will overthrow current echelons of power. John Katz expresses, in Virtuous Reality that adults, and governments, attempts to police and control what children are exposed to violate their rights. He also suggests focusing on how to deal with media, appropriate or not, instead of just blocking it.

As instructional designers we need to take into consideration not only the varied ability levels of the learners, but also their belief system. Fears, anxieties, and comforts need to be realized in designing learning environments and materials. A learners digital-age could be used to determine the best methods of developing learning systems.