Little eyes on big tube

My grandson Keegen, who is about to turn two, watches TV from his own miniature recliner while wearing a bathrobe and slippers, and sucking contentedly on a pacifier ("pah-fo" in his language).

My granddaughter Meaghan, who is slightly older, doesn't have such comfortable amenities for her viewing (preferring her real thumb to a rubber substitute). But she does own a large library of Disney and Barney videotapes from which she can select her evening's entertainment.

Neither of them is very adept at feeding themselves without spewing peas and carrots around the dining room, but both can dexterously take a favorite videocassette from the shelf and deftly insert it into the VCR.

Kids and TV

Welcome to the Era of Television from the Cradle Onward.

In fact, children nowadays can even appear on TV before they're born, thanks to ultrasound testing. Our daughter Carrie first appeared to us on a TV screen while in utero. Meaghan and Keegen, for their part, have starred in more videos than Jane Fonda.

My wife Mary and I have hours and hours of them on videotape, enough to rival "Gone With The Wind" and "Ben Hur" put together -- and they're not even talking in complete sentences yet. Imagine what we will have assembled when they say something we want to record for posterity.

Comfort on tube

As videocameras proliferate, I wonder if all of that time in front of the camera is creating a generation that will be more comfortable on television. Most of us grew up thinking of TV as something very special, which only very special people got to appear on. If one of us somehow found ourselves in front of a camera, we were self-conscious and nervous.

But Meaghan and Keegen have already amassed more TV time than Barbara Walters. There has been a lens pointed at them from birth. As a result, they are nonchalant in front of the camera; worse, they sometimes mug for it, changing our intention of capturing them behaving naturally to their intention of performing for viewers.

As this generation ages toward adulthood, TV might find itself with an audience that is very media savvy, more discriminating, and less willing to accept without question what's thrown at them as "entertainment" or "news."

How much?

Meanwhile, my sons grapple with how much TV and what TV to allow into their children's growing minds. One way they have found to control television is through the use of videotapes. They know what to expect when they buy a Muppet video or Disney classic like "Cinderella." They don't know what to expect when they just switch on the cable and let images flood their living rooms.

Already, my son Jim and his wife Christine have confronted the issue of turning the channel when something inappropriate appears while they watch the news or VH-1.

The little ones, meanwhile, take television in stride as part of the household furniture; like the TV generations before them, they can play merrily with toys or have books read to them while the tube flickers in the corner.

It will be very interesting to see how the Meaghans and Keegens of the world handle television -- as consumers and producers -- as the years march on.

(06-19-97) [[In-content Ad]]