Unless a Barbie Princess film is showing on the big screen, once upon a time is nary heard in this generation. Books have become obsolete in the views of most teenagers. With the help of handy dandy new technology, television is replacing the mighty novel. The reason most teenagers allow the boob tube to absorb their minds and leave zero time for book reading is that these in-between-adulthood-and-childhood gals and guys have grown up in a world of visual learning, they neglected to watch Barney and use their imagination, and they generally just wish to keep the obesity rate in an upward slant.
“Read chapters 1-7 on the Scarlet Letter, and prepare to be tested on this material next Tuesday,” said Mrs. Patti Smith, the English teacher. Now, two options are introduced to the students: read those tedious chapters page by page or rent the 1979 original movie directed by Rick Hauser. The movie would be the obvious choice. Of course this is not due to teenagers being lazy, oh no, never! Visual learning has been a part of their life since their mothers stuck them in front of the Care Bears hoping they might stop whining about McDonald’s. Nowadays, high school teachers are required to hand out Learning Style Tests. The results of these tests basically allow the teacher to know whether the majority of their students are visual, tactical, or auditory. Visual-learning stands out like a purple dinosaur in a field of sheep. Colorful notes flooded with creative doodles are passed down the aisles. Power Point presentations that spin, whistle, and shine with designs are shown to the class for inspiration. Signs featuring fluffy, white-haired professors plaster against the biology lab walls. With school supporting visual learning aids, where is the encouragement to read a book coming from?
Barney introduces children to the art of memorizing information through lyrics, the belief that not all dinosaurs are extinct, and, most importantly, the Barney Bag! The Barney Bag was full of nifty things to help the imagination flourish. A typical Barney episode would have children reenacting their most enjoyed books or reading recipes on how to cook up something creatively yummy. Barney showed children that if they put their minds to it, they are sure to do it. Apparently, teenagers of the I NEED IT RIGHT NOW generation do not want to waste their precious minds using this mythical word called imagination. Adventuring vast places, transforming into a totally new person, experiencing something unlike reality just by flipping through book is just too much for a teenager to grasp. Oh, golly, no! Teenagers want to watch endless hours of no-brainpower television, simply because they did not spend quality time with Barney. Where is that imagination? Supposedly still in the Barney Bag, because teenagers certainly do not possess any.
While the imagination is tucked behind some cob webs, the teenagers sit. Where do they sit, but none other than the couch, oozing into the cushions, with their mouths obliviously wide open. What better to accompany them during this zombie-like stage than a heaping pile of grub? America is nationally known as the country of gluttons. Anyone could easily state that America host millions upon millions of morbidly obese citizens. Teenagers thrive to be patriotic. These proud, brave teenagers diligently labor to keep America on the highest of ranks. Instead of using those fingers for turning pages in a book, all ten fingers, and possibly even toes, grab a hand full or fifty of some crunchy Doritos or dip a donut in some sausage gravy. If a teenager stopped for five minutes to eyeball some words, he might lose concentration on what he was about to snatch from the refrigerator shelf.
Teenagers think with their eyes, seeing only what the brains yearns to munch. To question a teenager’s reasoning for tossing books under the mattress to clear a space for a larger screen television is obscene! What Americans should do is support teenagers as they derive all their ideas and thoughts off what the media spoon feeds them. If the rest of the population would join the teenagers and throw another book into the burn pile to roast up some more hot dogs and marshmallows, this world be as beautiful as a reading rainbow.
