I was an innocent child for most of my childhood. My parents always tried to shield me from the horrors of the outside world. And then as a teenager my boarding school also hid the outside world from me.
It was only when I started work as a journalist that I was rapidly exposed to the outside world and its atrocities - homelessness, poverty, crime, war and everything else. I was profoundly shocked for a while.
It was normal when I was a child to preserve children's innocence, their cheerful outlook, and spare them from the sort of appalling things they weren't psychologically equipped to process.
But now, because of so many news outlets and so much social media, children are coming up against the outside world and all its barbarities at a very early age.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I would say it's a bad thing because young children who haven't yet cultivated the necessary cynicism or detachment or composure to take sickening horrors in their stride can find them extremely disturbing.
I'm sure this premature exposure to the outside world is partly what's causing the epidemic of mental distress among young people. But how to put the genie back in the bottle?
I think everything is overwhelming these days, for children and adults.
ReplyDeleteIf I spend too much time on the internet I generally feel rubbish. I think kids should be encouraged to play offline, and adults should put their phones down when kids are present and pay attention to them instead.
My dog even gets upset if both Mr Blue and I are focussing too much on screens.
As for innocence, I think it depends on the child and their interests, and the environment they're brought up in.
Sx
Ms Scarlet: Absolutely, kids should be encouraged to play offline and adults should be encouraged to switch off their phones. I agree, the degree of children's innocence does depend partly on the environment they're in. Which includes the news outlets and social media we're being swamped with day in and day out.
DeleteI feel as though every generation of children has lived through world events that have shaped their lives. It’s the feeling of hopelessness that’s causing the mental distress as well as the media.
ReplyDeleteBijoux: Yes, I think that's true. Hopelessness is a pretty prevalent emotion right now.
Delete