Confirmed: Watching Sponge Bob makes kids stupid

[n2doc]

By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

Monday, September 12, 2011

(09-12) 03:54 PDT CHICAGO, (AP) --

The cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants is in hot water from a study suggesting that watching just nine minutes of that program can cause short-term attention and learning problems in 4-year-olds.

The problems were seen in a study of 60 children randomly assigned to either watch "SpongeBob," or the slower-paced PBS cartoon "Caillou" or assigned to draw pictures. Immediately after these nine-minute assignments, the kids took mental function tests; those who had watched "SpongeBob" did measurably worse than the others.

Previous research has linked TV-watching with long-term attention problems in children, but the new study suggests more immediate problems can occur after very little exposure — results that parents of young kids should be alert to, the study authors said.

Kids' cartoon shows typically feature about 22 minutes of action, so watching a full program "could be more detrimental," the researchers speculated, But they said more evidence is needed to confirm that.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/09/11/national/a210211D78.DTL

[sofa king]

1. Was that not GWB's favorite show in the White House?

[Warren DeMontague]

60. Veggietales. nt

[NYC Liberal]

2. Seems like a poor study. The kids weren't tested before (only after),

they used "parent evaluations," and they use vague words like 'nearly' and 'on average.' The kids who watched SpongeBob scored 12 points lower "on average," so who knows if most scored close to the kids watching PBS but a scored poorly and brought the average down?

[pipi_k]

27. My thought as well...I wouldn't

exactly trust parent evaluations that much

I mean, really...what parent is actually going to say, "Yeah, my kid is an underperformer"

??

[anneboleyn]

72. Exactly. The study is an epic fail in terms of design and interpretation of results.

[ingac70]

3. If they didn't test before the program....

how do they know the kids weren't already stupid?

[seabeyond]

4. i didnt let kids watch cause it glorified stupid. same with a few other shows like

ed ed and eddy. but i had wondered about some of the shows that were fast moving on a whole different level. i can't remember what shows. was a decade ago.

[Brickbat]

5. Did it study whether watching "Caillou" made kids whiny and anoying?

[FSogol]

6. *snicker*

:rofl:

[ProdigalJunkMail]

31. amen...

our kids were not allowed to watch that little piece of shit cartoon bastardization of a child...for the very reason is all he did was whine...constantly

sP

[FedUpWithIt All]

33. Seriously. It's tough to listen to Caillou

Charlie and Lola has been children's show of choice among my lot which i appreciated. It's tolerable and since we only run DVDs and no television, repetitive shows can wear on you quickly.

[NYC Liberal]

44. LOL!

[FLAprogressive]

61. +1

[HughBeaumont]

7. I know I get 20 IQ points dumber after only 1 minute of it.

I can see where this study's coming from. I cannot stand that show. Never have. Yes, I KNOW . . . it's not meant for me, but still it's fucking ridiculous and over-the-top annoying. It's not even so-annoying-it's-funny; the truth is that it's not even good enough to suck.

It's the only program that makes Family Matters look like genius television.

[Capitalocracy]

26. Absorbent and yellow and porous is he!

Apparently nautical nonsense is not something ye wish.

[Warren DeMontague]

56. I actually think it's kind of funny.

I must be an idiot.

[MADem]

8. I agree with others who said that the children need to be tested beforehand.

That said, it's not hard to amp up any four year old, even without a television playing an action-packed, high volume cartoon. Any sort of running about and screaming in unison, be it on TV or in the family, will put a kid on "High C" and make them unable to utilize their executive function skills in the immediate short term to any real benefit.

The study suggests that when you have a lot of activity, action, and volume around a kid, you're probably going to get poor executive function following that timeframe--that, I can buy. Spongebob being evil? Not so much....

[jberryhill]

9. Being smart is highly over rated

[ddeclue]

54. +1

I'm smart but I'd rather be attractive any day. It's much more useful to be attractive than smart in this world.

[izquierdista]

10. It's Satanic too!

Pastor Deacon Fred will tell you why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2LAffndDac&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL5EF4E897CDB8B172

[Capitalocracy]

34. You know it! Check this out...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cku497rURF8

That guy is the voice of Spongebob.

[unblock]

11. if it really caused attention problems they wouldn't sit through it for the full 9 minutes...

:evilgrin:

[bemildred]

12. Watching TV makes you stupid; Sponge Bob is TV. QED. nt

[abelenkpe]

13. Awwwwww

I went to school with the guy who created sponge bob. He's very smart and talented His hope was to get kids interested in marine life and protecting the oceans by recognizing that there is a whole world under the waves. I don't think a show can make kids stupid. Any TV or movie should be watched with a parent who talks to kids about what they saw. My kids and I have watched sponge bob together and were always talking about how stupid Patrick is, how greedy mr Crabs is, how grumpy Squidward brings himself additional pain by being such a misanthrope, how simple Sponge bob can be, etc. I always point out when a character is inconsiderate or bullying or obsessive and we laugh about it and say what we would have done instead. We do that with anything we watch though. But with work and school we only get to watch about an hour a day if at all....

And I will say, my son really does want to protect the ocean. Don't know if it's because of sponge bob, or concern about trash or both. We've even helped clean the beach in Santa Monica several times.

I think watching anything alone can be detrimental though even for adults. Look at all the lonely seniors brainwashed by fox news. Tea party zombies indeed!

[FourScore]

16. My kids love it. And I find myself chuckling from the other room

at the jokes. I still remember my littlest boy playing t-ball -- he got up to bat, wiggled his bum with the bat in the air, and said "Watch and Learn". Everyone died laughing. His older brother said he got it from watching Sponge Bob.

I think there are worse things in life. Like watching wall-to-wall coverage of 9-11 without a single mention of, "BTW, how exactly did Building 7 collapse?" Talk about makin' ya' stupid...

[abelenkpe]

47. 9/11 coverage

successfully escaped so far. :)

My son did ask about it over the weekend and I told him we saw the entire thing take place so if he has any questions just ask. We were sorting legos at the time and the importance of finding a particular dark grey piece took over. Phew!

[morningglory]

64. One time some little annoyance happened. My granddaughter

who was 5 years old said "We are doomed!" It was hilarious out of her tiny mouth. I asked herwhere she heard that. She said "SpongeBob". Republics hate SB. Ever notice the way they present Mr Crabs? CEO-style! Just like Mr. Burns in Homer Simpson. I like it.

[renate]

23. I honestly love that show

I'll admit that I used to look down on Nickelodeon shows until my daughter discovered that we had the Disney Channel in our cable lineup. Now THAT is a channel full of crap, at least the shows with live actors, aimed at older kids/young teenagers ("Hannah Montana" was *excruciating* to watch, and so is "The Suite Life.") All the smart-mouthed, skinny, attractive, and well-dressed kids, looking down on their stupid, bumbling parents and teachers, and confusing sarcasm and unkindness with humor... it's awful. Better than it used to be, but still painful to watch.

I think "SpongeBob" really is a good show. :thumbsup:

[abelenkpe]

46. Completely agree about the live action

Disney shows. The live action Nick shows for teens aren't much better. :P

[Javaman]

14. yet, an article about Pesticides in food linked to ADHD in kids is buried...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1923231

[Broderick]

15. I watched it once

And I felt pretty stupid watching it.

[FourScore]

17. Confirmed: Watching a decade of 9-11 spin makes grown up stupid! n/t

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

18. And watching 10 minutes of The Disney Channel turns some kids into

annoying little assholes.

[renate]

39. true dat n/t

[Warren DeMontague]

19. Callou? Seriously?

I feel MY fucking brain cells dying watching that one.

[msanthrope]

20. It's not as bad as 'Barney.' I swear I could feel the aneurysm. nt

[krispos42]

22. I spend some time in college mixing sound files....

...that had Barney meeting unfortunate ends.


My favorite was him meeting the drill sergeant from "Full Metal Jacket".




I did Elmo, too.

[msanthrope]

24. Post Them, if you can---nt

[krispos42]

75. I never put them on any website or anything.

I can email to you if you want. I make them... oh, back about 1997 or so. Some of them are overly long, but there are some that are kinda short and too the point. :-)

[GermanDem]

51. Barney the Dinosaur

makes parents dream of extinction!!!

[krispos42]

74. I had him meeting Christopher Walken

:evilgrin:

[ProdigalJunkMail]

30. that kid whines like a mofo...

we had to stop letting our kids watch it because they were starting to talk like that little bastard every time they wanted something...holy FUCK that sucked!

sP

[Warren DeMontague]

48. And now I've got the inspid theme music playing in my head

HELP!!!!

[barbtries]

21. can you imagine

what watching barney did to kids?

explains quite a bit if you ask me.

i actually didn't mind sponge bob. the purple dinosaur now that's a whole other story. i hated it so much i refused to let my two-year-old watch it even if i was taking a shower.

[Fumesucker]

29. You might enjoy this..

I'm with you on the purple dinosaur, no death is too horrible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Barney_humor

[Goblinmonger]

71. My daughter loved Barney

I hated the show. She just started at U of Wisconsin after graduating top 5 in a class of 500 and started UW with 44 credits (will be a Junior in her second semester). Didn't seem to hurt her at all.

[Capitalocracy]

25. So this is based on test performance right after watching the show?

That seems rather arbitrary to me. Now, if they did a study showing that kids who watch Spongebob have lowered IQ over time, that would be significant, but this could be simply attributed to a very short-term change in mood or distractedness, with no indication of any long-term effects. I'm sure you'd get the same result if you gave someone a quiz right after they stepped off a roller coaster, but does that mean roller coasters make you stupid? Maybe, but I doubt it.

[librechik]

43. this bogus study belongs in a pineapple at the bottom of the sea.

Spongebob rulez

[pipi_k]

28. So anyway....

what is there different about Spongebob compared with the hours and hours of Bugs Bunny, Pepe' Le Pew, Betty Boop, Gumby, Beany and Cecil, and Popeye most kids of my generation watched?

And as far as I know, we turned out to be OK.


:shrug:

[ProdigalJunkMail]

32. sponge bob appears to be written

for adults with ADHD...not for kids. this may explain the problem.

sp

[LeftinOH]

35. I happen to like Spongebob; it's not really for toddlers. n/t

[Stuckinthebush]

36. Be very careful with the word "confirmed"

The experiment had some methodological issues (as all do), so many more studies are needed to examine the link.

One particular issue I noticed in the paper was that Cronbach's alpha for three of the measure designed to executive function (EF) were rather bad indicating reliability issues with the instruments. To compensate the researchers combined z-scores for the three measures for a composite EF score. I have a real problem with this from a psychometric standpoint. One could make the case that the composite score of summed z-scores inflates differences that were non stat-sig as stand alone scores. Also, there is a potential problem with the psychometric properties of a composite score. I'd view that result with much caution and hesitation.

The delay of gratification difference did indicate a large effect size of -.78. So, the Sponge bob watchers had scores that were about 3/4 of a standard deviate less than the educational tv watchers. That is impressive.

Also, there is a measurement problem with the baseline parent-reported attention span score. This was measured on a Likert-type scale of 1 to 10 with 10 indicated a high level of attention problems. This type of scale which seems to be researcher generated should really be treated as ordinal level data - not continuous.

So, interesting results but I wouldn't put much stock in the combined EF score and I would take the baseline attention score with a grain of salt due to issues with measurement.

The full study article is listed here:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/09/08/peds.2010-1919.full.pdf

[Capitalocracy]

38. I would totally have understood all that

except I just watched Spongebob. :freak:

[Stuckinthebush]

41. *spit-take*

You made me laugh my ass off!

Thanks!

Now, back to more sponge bob.. :D

[Papagoose]

37. I've been called a bad father for watching Spongebob with my kids

I prefer Adventure Time, but Spongebob cracks me up.

I like laughing with my kids and won't give it up for anything.

[Oilwellian]

42. My grandson and I love SpongeBob

And he's tested at genius level. Perhaps understanding SpongeBob requires an ability (and brain) to understand the humor in the cartoon. I think it's brilliant.

[AverageJoe90]

58. Yep.

[abelenkpe]

45. Adventure Time is the new fav for out family as well

both kids love it. Connor because the hero is a kid with a sword out to help people and Kinsey cause she loves all the princesses.

[Papagoose]

49. Puffy Space Princess' voice made me laugh until I got sick once

[Throd]

40. Caillou is a whiny little shit who expects everyone else to fix his fuck ups.

Plankton rocks!

[Ikonoklast]

50. This bullshit study makes Emo SpongeBob

...want to cut himself.

[Initech]

52. I always am reminded of one of Jay Leno's Jaywalking bits:

"Who is one of the supreme court justices of the united states?"
"I don't know."
"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?"
"Spongebob Squarepants!"

:scared:

[ddeclue]

53. LEAVE SPONGEBOB ALONE!

I like you SpongeBob even if those stupid psychological researchers don't.. you make me laugh..

:)

[Warren DeMontague]

55. Because the kids who have been watching "Caillou" are bored to fucking tears

so whatever psychoanalytical activity they are given immediately afterwards seems incredibly fascinating by comparison.

I smell an agenda, here... sort of like the 'researchers' who found that looking at porn creates something called 'erotoxins' in mens' brains. :eyes:

[AverageJoe90]

57. Uh......this is a joke, right?

Sorry, but this article mostly sounds like a bunch of psychobabble to me; I know too much TV can be a bad thing, but only 9 minutes causes LEARNING issues? Why can't they focus on things that actually harm children as a whole, such as corporal punishment or ultra-religious brainwashing? It's a sad indictment of our society when we can't get our fucking priorities in order.

[AmandaMae]

59. Too much TV makes anyone stupid. I watched Spongebob as a kid and I'm fine

[lumberjack_jeff]

62. Absorbent and yellow and porous is he.

I love it when the undersea creatures set fire to one another. Who needs science?

[krispos42]

76. I put the song on my kid's cel phone as his ringtone

He thought I was the coolest dad on the planet for a while there. :-)

[librechik]

63. This bogus study belongs in a pineapple under the sea n/t

[opiate69]

65. Correlation =/= causation. Epic study Fail.

[anneboleyn]

73. Exactly. And no pre-study tests were performed either. Epic fail.

[aikoaiko]

66. heh.

[jmowreader]

67. I just went to YouTube and watched some Caillou

You'd be better off having them watch Terrence and Philip episodes, if such existed.

[knitter4democracy]

68. I'm sorry. Caillou ended up being banned in my house.

I couldn't listen to that whiny little brat or his sister any longer.

[pipi_k]

69. Don't know Caillou, but if I ever see Dora the Explorer on the streets

I swear I will run her over as many times as it takes to kill a cartoon character.

[TwilightGardener]

70. I still love SpongeBob. My kids and I still make SpongeBob references, even

though they're teenagers now. It was a damn funny show, well-written. Not as good lately, but awesome when it was new. Of course, I grew up with Warner Brothers cartoons, Fractured Fairy Tales, Scooby Doo, etc. and I still managed to retain some brain cells.

[aikoaiko]

77. On th eother hand, I do let my 6 year old mellow to Kipper before bed.

And avoid Spongebob when in the evening.

[dembotoz]

78. is sponge bob the new code word for fox news?