The Fairly Oddparents was one children’s cartoon I chose to observe. This show is based around a little boy, Timmy Turner, whose parents are always abandoning him and leaving him with an evil babysitter, Vicky. Because of his miserable life, Timmy was granted with …show more content…
This popular television show is based around Spongebob, a sponge, and his friends (other sea creatures), who live under the sea. Spongebob is portrayed as a happy and caring male character, breaking gender roles that men are not caring and compassionate. In the show, Spongebob and Patrick, a starfish and Spongebob’s best friend, are constantly playing unsafe games together. In the particular episode I viewed, Spongebob and Patrick played six games involving hurting one another physically, but this did not impact them in the cartoon. This behavior could negatively affect a child’s physical safety if they mocked the behavior of Spongebob and Patrick. Other characters, such as Plankton and Squidward, show negative behaviors. Plankton, who is trying to steal the Krabby Patty Formula, also has a bad attitude and is making up mischievous plans, and Squidward is always annoyed and negative towards Spongebob and Patrick. While Plankton did not appear in this episode, I counted 4 times that Squidward used negative language towards Spongebob and Patrick. Regarding stereotypes, Spongebob Squarepants breaks stereotypes, as Sandy (girl) is great at science and math and Spongebob is extremely caring, but also enforces stereotypes in some characters, such as Pearl (teenage girl) who is extremely needy and materialistic. By breaking stereotypes with Sandy and Spongebob, this will hopefully show young boys that it is ok to be caring and …show more content…
can pose negative effects on children emotionally, socially, and cognitively. By promoting negative behavior in television shows, children might start to mock this behavior, thinking that it is ok if on television. By copying aggressive behavior, this child might start to lash out on others, thus causing them to lose social connections. Television can also slow down brain development, especially if the child is younger. The more hours a child spends watching television, the less time the child spends exercising, making social connections, speaking, and improving their cognitive abilities. Furthermore, parents should restrict their child’s viewing time depending on the time it takes away from these activities. Parents should moderate the time their child is watching T.V. and make sure that it is healthy for the child according to their