Customer Reviews

Imagination and Play in the Electronic Age

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Contrary to what we've been led to believe, t.v. exposure could have a good impact on young people as a learning tool instead of a substitute babysitter. This husband-wife team has been studying media influence on children for many years. In his early research, he was looking at television as an impetus for cognitive development and credited it for helping younger children to read. "Other media -- radio, films, and books -- may influence a person's imaginative potential, but none of these are as pervasive in a child's life as television. Children who are very young do not spend as much time with books as they do with TV or electronic games, and certainly they do not listen to radio or attend movies as frequently as they watch television."

With the growth of internet use among children, the electronic media must be taken seriously as an influence upon the consciousness of youngsters. "Currently, there is a substantial amount of research adressing the issue of aggression and violence and the electronic media." A most recent study "adds further evidence linking overt aggressive behavior to a combination of watching violent television and playing violent video games.

Historically, girls have been "socialized into reading and school readiness skills." Before the emergence of electronic media, girls played dress-up games with paper cut-out dolls for many decades. Boys were encouraged "to physical play and to extensive enthusiasm and practice of motor skills. " Boys focus on sports and athletic heroes. Generally, both sexes stayed close to real life, with some refelction of MTV influences. In keeping with findings from studies of sex differences in play, "girls used more verbal expression and boys were more playful and engaged in more action."

"As the extensive research on social learning has shown, we form our identities by combining early awareness of our own early temperamental characteristics (impulsivity vs. reflectivity, fearfulnss vs. assurance, irritability vs. amiability) with modeling ourselves on features of people we admire." The late renowned astronomer, Carl Sagan, (with that beautiful deep resonant voice) has also described in interviews "how his childhood of reading of Edgar Rice Burrough's series and novels about John Carter on the planet Mars led him to a career in science and to his lifelong exploration of outer space and the possibility of extraterrestrial life."

The challenge and responsibility falls on parents and educators to guide children into cyberspace in much the same way as their "encouragement, reading, and storytelling is critical for aiding children to develop imagination and literacy. With guidance from parents and teachers, empathy, creativity and imagination can expand and intensify in the electronic age."

Both authors are co-directors at the Yale TV Research Center and have edited a HANDBOOK OF CHILDREN AND THE MEDIA. Dorothy Singer is Senior Scientist and, together, they have written MAKE-BELIEVE: GAMES AND ACTIVITIES FOR IMAGINATIVE PLAY in 2000 and HOUSE OF MAKE BELIEVE. Jerome Singer is Professor Emeritus in the Psychology Department at Yale University and relates his life as a researcher in IMAGERY IN PSYCHOTHERAPY, out in 2005.