The future of childhood-Sociologist list
Key:
Heheh-Sociologist Heheh-Important information
The disappearance of childhood
● Postman(1994)
- Information on the disappearance of childhood
- Argues that childhood is ‘disappearing at a dazzling speed’
- Due to the trend of giving children the same information as adults
- Examples of how ‘childhood is disappearing’:
1. The growing similarities between adult's and children's clothing
2. The disappearance of children’s traditional unsupervised games(e.g. More
electronic gaming and they tend to be more violent, like shooting games, PG
18+)
3. Cases of children committing ‘adult’ crimes such as murder
- The reason for this ‘disappearance’ is due to the rise and fall of print culture,
and its replacement which is television culture
- Associates the middle ages with the ‘90s(recent years)→most people were
illiterate, speech and linguistic skills were the only skill needed to
participate in the adult world, children were able to enter the adult age
from a young age(childhood did not equal innocence, nor the adult world
with mystery)→no division between adults and children
→the information hierarchy-Postman
- Argued that from the 19th century onwards, childhood started to emerge as a
separate status(along with mass literacy)→due to the introduction of printed
words which created an information hierarchy
- Information Hierarchy→a sharp division between adults(who can read), and
children(who can not read)
- The information hierarchy gave adults power as it kept knowledge from
children hidden(e.g. Sex, money, violence, illness, death and other ‘adult’
matters)→they became mysteries from children, and childhood then became
associated with innocence and ignorance
1
Key:
Heheh-Sociologist Heheh-Important information
The disappearance of childhood
● Postman(1994)
- Information on the disappearance of childhood
- Argues that childhood is ‘disappearing at a dazzling speed’
- Due to the trend of giving children the same information as adults
- Examples of how ‘childhood is disappearing’:
1. The growing similarities between adult's and children's clothing
2. The disappearance of children’s traditional unsupervised games(e.g. More
electronic gaming and they tend to be more violent, like shooting games, PG
18+)
3. Cases of children committing ‘adult’ crimes such as murder
- The reason for this ‘disappearance’ is due to the rise and fall of print culture,
and its replacement which is television culture
- Associates the middle ages with the ‘90s(recent years)→most people were
illiterate, speech and linguistic skills were the only skill needed to
participate in the adult world, children were able to enter the adult age
from a young age(childhood did not equal innocence, nor the adult world
with mystery)→no division between adults and children
→the information hierarchy-Postman
- Argued that from the 19th century onwards, childhood started to emerge as a
separate status(along with mass literacy)→due to the introduction of printed
words which created an information hierarchy
- Information Hierarchy→a sharp division between adults(who can read), and
children(who can not read)
- The information hierarchy gave adults power as it kept knowledge from
children hidden(e.g. Sex, money, violence, illness, death and other ‘adult’
matters)→they became mysteries from children, and childhood then became
associated with innocence and ignorance
1
