Television and Fear

Over the years, television has provided the American public with a lot of entertainment, some of it of high quality. It's ubiquitous, but it has changed our country in some ways which are most unfortunate. The story about East Second Street sixty five years ago brings to mind certain unwritten rules in effect then. Children in our neighborhood who could be trusted not to run into the path of an automobile were otherwise free to do just about anything. From the early spring to the very late fall, children played with each other outdoors. Most of the mothers then were stay-at-home women who kept house, raised children, cooked and cleaned and generally worked awfully hard. So, they kept an eye on what was going on in the neighborhood and seemed to have a sixth sense when we were up to something we shouldn't be. I mentioned rules. When breakfast was over, children were free to leave the house and go anywhere we wanted in the neighborhood. And we could stay all morning. The signal for lunch was the whistle at the Pulley Factory, a sound that could be heard all over east Maysville. We were to be home within a very few minutes after the whistle sounded. And lunch was served. For a long time, we had our main meal in the middle of the day, as was the country custom. We called it dinner, while the last meal of the day was denominated supper. After lunch (dinner), some of us were made to take naps early in life, but later, the afternoon was totally free for play. I guess our stomachs told us when it was suppertime, because there was no whistle to announce that meal. There were, however, mothers all over the neighborhood calling their children to come home, wash up, and get ready for supper. After supper, it was back outside where we could remain until the street lights came on. In July, they didn't light up until nine or nine-thirty. And so, with brief interruptions for food and sustenance, our summer days were frequently thirteen hours outside. It's not that way anymore. Parents these days seem to be terrified, really frightened about bad things which could befall their children. There seems to be constant supervision, planned activities and almost no spontaneous creativity on the part of children. Mothers or fathers almost always accompany their children to parks and other places which might interest a child. If you talk to a mom about what she allows her nine year old to do, it's completely different these days and it arises out of her fear for the child's safety. I think this is an unfortunate result of the television set. Recently, the tv news has been flooded with coverage about the 11 year old girl abducted and held incommunicada for years by a perverted child molester. The story is the stuff of a horror novel and is undoubtedly true. But television makes it seem like the story arose in the next block down the street. When this type of news was reported in the newspaper, the effect was not nearly so sensational and there wasn't repetitive coverage all day long and from day to day. There is another story on television which implied that a child's grandmother had hidden her grandchild in a two foot wide room for two years, thereby shielding the child from one of its parents as a result of a custody fight. It's true she hid the child when someone she thought was a threat visited her home, but in those custody circumstances, this isn't all that unusual. But it is the intention of television, I think, to make such stories as sensational as possible. The point of all of this is that television has been extremely effective in scaring our population of things that are almost totally unlikely to happen to their children. You may not agree, and if you don't, I think the television has gotten to you. I know it's gotten to me. Maybe there's nothing we can do about it, but it is a damned shame that kids can't grow with a little more spontaneity, learning as they go. Not everything modern is necessarily good. And television is a first class example!