The Culture Beat

So, what’s wrong with kids today? Ask that and you tend to get a thousand different answers. In regards to pop culture, you get these kinds of answers: too much fill-in-the-alarmist-blank on television and in movies. Granted, tv is so sexualized, I’m embarrassed to watch some commercials. Granted, there’s so much violence, I’m completely desensitized (and, yes, during chick flicks, I will wonder outloud when someone’s getting her head cut off, because it will definitely make it more entertaining). We talk about kids being spoiled, the latest technology sprouting out of their ears in the form of iPods, cellphones, and now the brilliant merger of those, the iPhone. We talk about kids being over-scheduled and certain circles worry about preschools and whether little Johnny is good enough.

And all of it may be true.

But I found another culprit last night that might explain what’s wrong with kids. Their parents. No big surprise, right? But the evidence I discovered as I watched television last night is so innocuous, so basically all-American, that to blame it for anything seems absurd.

What is it? America’s Funniest Videos, now in its 18th season. Now, I like slapstick — maybe even more than most people. I find people falling off trampolines/skateboards/bikes/pogo sticks endlessly entertaining. I’m one of those people who will try unsuccessfully to not laugh while asking you if you’re okay — especially if my question will be followed by the words, “What were you thinking?”

However, the winners of the big prize are not in the slapstick category. Nor are they in the cute-and-clever animal category. They are in the bratty kid category (e.g., kid spitting on birthday candles). Again last night — as I’ve seen in the past — the big winner was a three year old arguing with his grandmother after she took away his airplane when he hit her in the head twice with it. And people not only ooh and aah over this little Damien incarnation but vote to give him the big prize.

It’s not Damien’s fault. He’s just doing what kids do. Or used to do until Dad came in and threatened violence if we kept talking to Mom that way, let alone Grandma. But now we have Dad holding the camera while Mom eggs on the tantrum, all for the lure of ten thousand dollars. It’s bizarro world when we realize that a parental figure is actually filming all this and doing nothing.

So in addition to boycotting (or at least not watching) sex and violence, let’s also boycott the rewarding of tantrumic children and their camcorder-wielding parents. Please. It’s for the children.