Sometimes I Wish I Can Stop Learning New Things

Twerking. That is a term that I had never heard of before last weekend but it must be the hottest buzzword in the news today. After Miley Cyrus's scandalous dance routines at the MTV Video Music Awards program last Sunday, that's all anybody is talking about. Even normally staid reporters at respectable publications are talking about twerking. When did non entertainment reporters suddenly get so hip?

The Urban Dictionary defines twerking as, "When a woman slams her bottom on a man's pelvic area while dancing." In my youthful days, it was known as dirty dancing or grinding. But somehow the act appears far more outrageous today. When Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey were gyrating their hips in "Dirty Dancing" in 1987, it didn't feel like you needed to take a shower after watching the movie.

Perhaps I'm just getting old. When Madonna sang "Like A Virgin" at the VMA's in 1984 in a white wedding dress and rolled around the floor moaning, I thought it was entertaining but hardly earth shattering. But I was merely a teenager then. However its shock value to adults in the audience has transcended time and is now mentioned as one of the signature events in the history of the VMA's.

Somehow I feel that my world would have been better off if I had never heard of twerking. It scares me to think how much more debased our culture will become in the future. If this is what it takes to get grab attention these days, I shudder to think what my children will be subjected to when they become teenagers themselves. If teens consider sexting to be just another form of communcation, are we surprised by what we saw on TV over the weekend? How soon will it be before MTV moves the VMA's into the late night hours so that can show full on coitus on TV to attract attention?

Here Comes The Next Generation of Obese ADHD Inflicted Children

I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw promos for an infant cable channel, BabyFirst TV.  First established in 2006, it's a channel aimed specifically at children who can barely crawl.  Their website claims the programming has been developed by "education experts" and as a bonus it is commercial free.  Yes the commercials would have been so much more detrimental to the development of the infant brain.

I wonder who the experts were that the network hired to program the channel?  They certainly weren't members of the American Academy of Pediatrics, who have specifically come out against any television viewing for children under the age of two.  The so called experts also didn't do any academic research on the subject of TV viewing in infants and toddlers or they would have seen that there are multiple papers linking TV and development of ADHD later in life.  The network obviously didn't consult with the Disney corporation, who had to recall all their Baby Einstein videos and send a refund for claiming the DVD's was educational for children.  I won't even go into the numerous studies linking TV viewing and obesity.

Have we as a society become so harried that we will pay (it is a premium channel, not basic cable) to have the TV babysit our children for hours at a time?  Even hiring a babysitter would be more stimulating to our children then plopping them in front of the LCD, assuming you didn't get one of those psycho babysitters.  Unfortunately corporate thinkers have come to the conclusion that there is big money to be made broadcasting programs to pre-toddlers, future of America be damned.  They'll just leave it to the insurance companies and government to clean up the mess later by spending billions of dollars on obesity and ADHD related illnesses.