Well, I have a lot of feelings about visual media, about the surplus of media in our society. I love television and I love film and I love telling pictures with stories, I also love picture books, it’s the same thing. I think that, that we’re all stimulated by the visual part of storytelling. And for some people that’s the primary way that they’re reached rather than the verbal, so I’m all for it.
It, what I have some concerns about is how we’re flooded with media and how, and what the gatekeeper is for that. You know, kids, if you look at the studies now the most common activity of kids between the age of two and six, the most common recreational activity is not watching television, it’s watching YouTube videos. So that’s an interesting thing because YouTube videos are kind of unfiltered.
And I’m not talking about inappropriate content, I’m just talking about lousy content, you know amateur content, you know not good storytelling, not you know reality television that’s kind of mindless. So I think, I’m absolutely not opposed to having media in kid’s lives because that’s in my life and it’s an entirely pleasurable part of it. But I do think that we’re kind of over flooding ourselves with media that isn’t particularly curated.
You know that’s just out there. And I think that that’s a problem because you get used to filling your mind, you know your mind can only absorb so much and if it’s filled with material that’s kind of without purpose or without elevation or you know without something that has some kind of purpose or nobility then really it’s just a waste of time. So I’m more concerned about it as a time waster taking time away from doing other activities that are creative.
But if you’re watching interesting television, educational television, and stimulating television or great film, that’s as much an art form as a book is.