I'm not blaming anyone, this kind of thing is inevitable. Heck, our childcare uses YouTube as a tool as well. And it is a tool. It depends on how you use it as to whether it's good or bad.
For every Danny Go! That gets the kids up and moving, there's a Cocomelon that turns them into zombies. For every arts and crafts video like Mister Maker (think modern day Art Attack) there is a bunch of literal children doing robotic unboxing of toys as thinly veiled advertising. For every wholesome Topsy and Tim episode, you get usually the same child 'stars' copy pasting video ideas.
Now, when she was little it was easy to police what she watched. We would watch it together and then discuss it. "Oh dear, it looks like Diana was very sad when (event) happened. How do you think you would feel?" Or "Roma was littering, wasn't he? What could he have done instead?"
These days, she's allowed some more freedom and admittedly it's harder to get that connection with her about the "content" because sometimes I'm not there due to work, or she's at school, or it's during a drive so I can keep my sanity etc. I still try.
I actively block really terrible channels or videos. I try to talk to her about the videos that state they're sponsored, because kids are not going to understand that. They see Maddison and Trinity taking about a new toy, they think it's playing. They don't see what I'm looking at - the girls glassy eyed as they clearly read a script. They don't play, they just outline the toy's features but not in a "wow, this doll can colour change if you dunk it in cold water!" but in a very unnatural 'I have to hit all these key notes or I won't get paid' way like "This is DOLLNAME from the super awesome CHANNEL/SHOW. I just LOVE her. Isn't she great? We also have her friends, EXAMPLE 1, EXAMPLE 2 and of course EXAMPLE 3. We got them from BRAND NAME OF STORE (omits they were likely gifted or reimbursed). Just like her favourite colours are suddenly MY favourite colours, I've dressed up like DOLLNAME because she's my favourite and isn't she great? I hope you get one so we can play together/engage in parasocial relationships! Her hair is long and has two colours. She comes with one accessory that you'll lose immediately. Here is the front of DOLLNAME and here is the back. Look how nice the generic box she came in is. DOLLNAME from CHANNEL/SHOW is a super cool toy that I just love coincidentally, and you should buy one so we get more sponsorships and you can consume more soulless videos from us."
Sure, I exaggerated but that was basically the transcript. Love Diana and Like Nastya are two of the bigger names. I honestly prefer Love Diana because while they clearly have amassed a fortune and do sponsorship videos, the parents obviously keep a tighter reign on what the kids do. They're still kids. They actively make scripted content to amuse kids and it's not just camera in the face 24/7. They have a toy line and merchandise they've clearly had a hand in.
Like Nastya is very similar but more in the I'm sponsored by this company or TikTok/Youtube are guest stars at my birthday party, here's a bunch of cheap zazzle things I slapped my name on and oh look my friends are here wearing shirts with my name and likeness on kinda way.
It's this one I want to talk about because these guys also do music. It's kids music, I'm not expecting anything too fantastic but holy crap. Like Nastya's music is something else. I want to dissect one song in particular. If you haven't heard it, it's an earworm music wise but it contains the most bored sounding girl spouting nonsense in a pretence that this song is in any way educational. Here we go.
"Hello. My name is Nasty-a. I can sing the alphabet to ya. I know, you can sing it too. So come on sing it with me. "
From here she launches into the alphabet. It's the alphabet song. Great. I mean, it was a weird way to start, coming off like she's either going to teach YOU how to sing it or bragging about how she knows the alphabet in another language... but then immediately acknowledging that the person she's randomly talking to about this also can do this. So it's not "Let's do this together!" It's a "come on, let's get this over with so I can start repeating la la la's."
"Hello, all the boys and girls. We are super heroes of the world. I can fly, I'm invincible and I'm really, really flexible.
All the boys and girls, come on, we could rule the world. 'Cause we know our ABC'S, sing it with me 1-2-3"
This part destroys my husband's soul each time he hears it. "What has being flexible got to do with anything?!" He moans in abstract pain. I think it's stupid but I think it's supposed to be encouraging? It's the next part that gets me.
"A is for an apple and B is for a ball. C is for a cat and D is for a dog. We could go on and on and on and on and on, yeah, 'cause this is our favourite song."
Yes. It's the alphabet song. We could go on and on and on about what the other letters could stand for, but we won't. After all, this is the alphabet song and I have to fill more of it with repetitive la la la's and drivel about superhero powers I CLEARLY do not have because who wants to hear about the bleeding alphabet in the ALPHABET SONG AMIRIGHT
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