The Future of Childhood Flashcards
Outline the disappearance of childhood
Postman argues childhood is ‘disappearing at a dazzling speed’.
Describe examples that show that childhood is disappearing
- Postman points to the trend that children are given the same rights as adult.
- Children are on social media, an uncensored world where children can see adult content which ruins innocence
- Children now act and dress like adults and many mimic what they see in the media
- Children committing ‘adult’ crimes’, such as the James Bulger case.
- Children exposed to alcohol and drugs e.g. Britain has one of the highest rates of drug abuse amongst teens in Europe
What has been the cause of childhood disappearing?
Postman argues that its emergence and now disappearance is due to the rise and now fall of print culture and its replacement by television culture.
What is the information hiearchy?
Postman argues that childhood emerged as a separate status along with mass literacy. The printed word creates an information hierarchy, a divide between adults who read and children that don’t
What does the information hierarchy do to adults and how does it affect children?
Gives adults power to keep knowledge on ‘adult’ matters e.g. sex, death. These then become a mystery to children so childhood is associated with ignorance
How does television affect the information hierarchy?
- It blurs the distinction between childhood and adulthood by destroying the information hierarchy
- It doesn’t require special skills to access. The boundary between childhood and knowledge is broken down, so adult authority diminishes and innocence is replaced with knowledge
Give evaluation for the disappearance of childhood
Opie argues childhood isn’t disappearing. Based on research into children’s unsupervised songs, games and rhymes, she argues there’s evidence of a continued separate children’s cultures
Outline Jenks’ argument of childhood
Jenks argues childhood isn’t disappearing, it has just changed
What is modern society concerned with according to Jenks?
- For Jenks, modern society (20c) was concerned with ‘futurity’ and childhood was seen as a preparation for the individual to become an adult.
- To achieve this, the vulnerable child needed to protected, by the ‘child-centred’ family and the education system, which imposed discipline and conformity on children
Describe childhood in postmodernity
Jenks argues that in post modern society relationships are unstable (divorce is more common). This means that adults relationship with their children become their source of security. As a result, they become protective over their child’s safety.
- This strengthens the view that children are vulnerable and resulting in greater regulation of children’s lives.
- Therefore, childhood is a separate status, and the legal and other restrictions marks them off from adults
Give evaluation for childhood in postmodernity
There’s some evidence that parents see their relationship with their children as more important than that of with their partners, and they’re concerned about the risks children face. However, this comes from small, unrepresentative studies.
