ASSIGNMENT
Read the Passage! Do you agree or disagree, or can you relate to his or her opinion in the post? ADD any thoughts or additional information that you may have found concerning their topic?
For this week’s discussion I chose to review the TV series Avatar the Last Airbender. Throughout the show, the protagonists shown are “tweens” and the struggles they face according to the storyline. The characters typically responded how impulse would lead you to act. As a tween watches the program they are able to arm chair quarterback a little and think about how said reaction was right or wrong allowing the viewer to engage in ethics whilst being entertained. However, what was on television for kids in their late childhood a decade ago is much different than what is on today. As the times change, as cultures shift, and societies shift to view x, y, and z. as appropriate or inappropriate, television programs do as well, taking things out of television and adding new concepts and cultural norms. Regardless of film quality, if we only looked at content between shows in the 60s and 70s compared to shows of today. there would literally and figuratively be a black and white difference. Dr. Panetta points out in his psychoanalytic review: “The Last Airbender, an animated TV series aimed at 6-to-11-year-olds that aired on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. The series wonderfully combines elements of Chinese martial arts such as kung fu and tai chi, which provide the action and excitement, with Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. More surprisingly, it presents the audience with an unexpected level of character development, revealing a psychoanalytic process of unconscious conflict, repetition, and emotional resolution through relationship” (Panetta, 2016). The effect this television series can have on development is positive. Of course we wouldn’t expect 9 year old to be studying and practicing philosophy or doing behavior analysist research. However, we can see that the child may look up to the protagonist and want to reflect the same virtues the protagonist which may play a positive role in their cognitive development. If I were a parent I would want to analyze the show and do research on it prior to letting my own child indulge in it, there would be time limits on to how long they can watch, along with program limitations. Research according to the APA suggest a monitoring system along with time limits for certain age ranges: “no screen time at all for children until 18 to 24 months, except for video chatting, and says kids ages 2 to 5 should get an hour or less of screen time per day…parents should keep co-viewing media with their kids. Keeping an open line of communication around media helps protect kids when they inevitably run into content they aren’t ready to see…A healthy, nonrancorous relationship around media also makes it easier to enforce boundaries when required” (Pappas, 2022).
