For children growing up in the late 2000s and early 2010s, various television shows and cartoons were part of their daily life. Every kid had two or three favorite TV shows that they could watch for hours on end.
Reflecting on these shows brings back memories of a simpler time. A time full of either wholesome lessons about kindness, or hilarious jokes about rear-end accidents. Either way, everyone seemed to lean towards one or the other.
“I watched a lot of innocent childhood TV shows,” freshman David Stensing said. “So I guess I wasn’t exposed to some of the more mature cartoons.”
No matter the series, there was always one character that seemed most relatable. These characters were people to be admired, and nearly worshiped. Kids would even imitate the character’s persona in imaginative games.
“My favorite TV show as a child was Avatar: The Last Airbender,” senior Lucy Whipple said. “I really looked up to Toph because she was really tough and I wanted to be tough.”
As kids become teenagers, their taste in television changes, and the shows that they once loved become distant memories. However, these shows don’t always stop when kids do. The series could just be getting started when it gets abandoned by watchers.
“I heard Ash finally ended his Pokemon journey, so I watched those new episodes of Pokemon,” sophomore Elias Brower said. “It was pretty interesting.”
It can be super fun to rewatch favorite shows, or even keep up with where they are now. Sometimes, though, the memories don’t come back and the episodes are just horrendous.
“I constantly rewatch Samurai Jack and Avatar. They are still some of the greatest TV shows in the world,” Whipple said. “Dora the Explorer, on the other hand, is not one.”
Even those characters that were idolized become boring or obnoxious. Especially when younger siblings watch the same brain-numbing episodes over and over again. Those who were once heroes become insufferable.
“In Thomas the Train I really liked Percy. I don’t know why,” Brower said. “Now I’m forced to watch Thomas the Train again because of my little brothers, and I hate Percy.”
Most of the TV shows available were designed to teach valuable lessons about math, reading, and behavior. They aided the conquering of fears and the construction of friendships. They provided an entertaining form of education and emotional growth.
“I became less scared of sea creatures because of Octonauts. Because at the end of every episode, they would show the real animal,” Brower said, “They always used to freak me out.”
TV shows from the 2000’s were much more educational and healthy than those that children watch today. They don’t focus on the basic lessons that should be learned at that age.
“What little kids are watching today is just not educational at all,” Stensing said. “It doesn’t focus on things like manners and learning the ABC’s like they should.”
If anything, these are teaching bad habits. They are void of informational content and only hinder the learning process with more screen time and short attention spans.
“Things kids watch today are so much worse. It’s all just brain rot, and all of the content is way shorter,” Brower said. “I watched a whole video on Cocomelon and how fast the scenes switch. So I think kids are going to have even shorter attention spans.”
Overall, the lessons learned, or not learned, as well as the sense of humor developed from watching TV as kids has built a generation. Television will continue to influence many more generations to come.
“These TV shows shaped my generation by giving it intelligent humor, and I feel like it really impacted the way we viewed the world,” Whipple said. “You can totally tell the difference between a person who grew up with Avatar as their favorite show and a person who didn’t.”
