a postmodern childhood

As was explained earlier in this chapter, childhood is a social construction and so it changes over time as it did before and after industrialisation. Postmodernists believe that in 21st Century UK childhood has changed again as a result of our increasingly consumption and media focused society.

Blurring or Disappearance of Childhood into Adulthood - Postman

Postmodernist Postman argues that childhood is disappearing or becoming blurred as the mass media and television have brought adult priorities and concerns into the lives of children. He argued we have seen a shift from a print culture, to a TV culture allowing children too readily and easily access adult content.

Also the boundaries between the worlds of children and adults are breaking down, with adult authority diminishing and the ignorance and innocence of children being replaced by knowledge and cynicism.

The trend is giving children the same rights as adults, the disappearance of children’s traditional unsupervised games, the growing similarity of adults’ and children’s’ clothing, and even to cases of children committing ‘adult’ crimes such as murder.

Postman argues that through advertising, on TV or social networking and elsewhere, children have been introduced to materialism and sold the idea that consumption brings happiness turning children into “egocentric consumers”. He believes television blurs the distinction between childhood and adulthood by destroying the information hierarchy. Unlike the printed world, TV does not require special skills to access it, and it makes the information available to adults and children alike.

evaluation

1. Postman has been criticised for overstating his case. Clearly, television and the media have brought adult priorities and concerns into the lives of children.

2. Lee suggests that childhood is becoming more complex and ambiguous with children being financially dependent on parents for longer but also seeking financial independence through part-time jobs.

Thus we are trying to be adults (independence) but also still children (dependence).

Blurring or Disappearance of Childhood into Adulthood - Palmer

As a result of children becoming more like adults, Palmer describes childhood as being Toxic, due to rapid technological and cultural changes over the last 25 years have damaged children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development

For example, the junk food they eat and the time wasted playing computer games; she talks about the “electronic village” and intensive marketing to children makes adults work long hours.

TVs in children’s bedrooms lead to a greater amount of time spent alone, more susceptible to grooming as well as marketing, less involvement with parents and greater exposure to terrifying news stories. It has now become a media issue with many stories of bad parenting, and TV shows showing parents how to parent.

Additionally, Margo & Dixon show that the UK has the top obesity, self-harm and drug/alcohol abuse. A UNICEF survey in 2013 ranked the UK 16th out of 29 for children’s well-being. There is physical neglect or abuse of children by adults. Childline receives over 20,000 calls each year.

evaluation

1. The case for the end of childhood is not so clear cut because childhood has been extended. More and more adult children rely on parental help because they cannot afford to leave the family home.

2. The experiences of childhood is not the same for all children. Hilman argues boys are more likely to be allowed to cross or cycle on roads, use buses and go out after dark. They receive greater freedom than girls who are constrained by higher levels of parental control. Woodroffe suggests children of unskilled manual workers are over three times more likely to suffer from hyperactivity and four times more likely to experience conduct disorders than children of professionals.

Blurring or Disappearance of Adulthood into Childhood

As well as childhood changing in a postmodern society, with children becoming more involved in the traditionally adult world, what it means to be an adult, and how they spend their time is also said to have changed in the 21st century.

McDonald argued that the rise of mass culture has led to “infantile adults” as a result of watching children’s TV, reading comics etc.

Lee believes this is a result of adult life being less stable and incomplete e.g. Divorce and unemployment leading to greater uncertainty in adult life. Hence they behave more like children.

Conclusion

Wagg points out that childhood is a social construction and there is no universal definition to cover it. Childhood varies across cultures, by class, gender and ethnicity.