Introduction
Psychology refers to childhood as the time between birth and puberty, just before the human being enters adolescence (Gowers, 2005). However for sociologists, childhood is considered as the period after infancy, wherein the human being begins to actively participate in his or her immediate social environment and make conscious choices that can affect other people, and this typically though not strictly begins at age 6 (Cunningham, 1995). This definition of childhood by sociology is particularly what is adopted by this paper, as it presents an artifact that symbolizes the various facets of the concept of childhood as it is at the present. This paper begins with a description of how the artifact was constructed and continues with the explanation of the various elements of the artifact as it relates to childhood in 2009.
Construction of the Artifact
The construction of this artifact began with a deep reflection on what it means to be a child in 2009. The most dominant idea that came to mind during this reflection is technology, which the author believes to be the focal difference between what it is like to be a child in the present to what it is like to be a child in the past. Research confirms the influence and impact of the media-saturated environment of the United States on children, due to which an average child is exposed to more than five hours of media on a single day, outside the school (Rideout et al., 1999). Studies indicate that businesses are increasingly targeting young children to augment the sales of their merchandise since the initial part of the 1980s (Aird, Advertising and Marketing to children in the United States). With the majority of the children in America playing a crucial role in the production and sales of consumer goods, marketing to and for children has become an important business activity (Aird, ). The media-saturated environment in which Americans live and are exposed is indicated by studies that have proven that the approximate time dedicated to media by children in the age group 2 and 13 years is more than five hours (Rideout et al., 1999).
The extreme difference in the level of technology between now and a few decades ago as it affects childhood became the center of the artifact, and this is correlated with one of the most important facets of childhood from the perspective of mental health experts, play (Jenkinson, 2001). The ability of children to engage in play is one of the most essential needs of a child and is in fact, a protected right of children by the United Nations (Jenkinson, 2001). This led the author to realize that a conceptualization of how children play now is perhaps one of the most definitive expressions of what childhood is at the present. Research confirms the impact of video games, which has received increased attention due to the learning principles supported by the use of video games in cognitive science (Gee 2003, 2004). For instance, multi-player video games like the World of Warcraft facilitate players to create their desired virtual careers, giving them an environment that prepares them with some kind of experience, even though virtual (Gee, 2005). Taking this central theme into consideration, the author collected various related pictures from the internet and combined them into a single image. This image is composed of various elements, each symbolizing parts of the author’s complete idea of childhood in 2009.
The Artifact
The artifact is a collage of different images found on the internet, combined in such a way as to present a collection of ideas regarding childhood as it is today. The main base of the artifact is an image taken from the massively multiplayer online game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft, which is an example of the popular internet games available to children today. This base image consists of a character in the game and a background that is shifted to grayscale on the right-hand side. From this base image, other elements are added which include a Play Station Portable (PSP) attached to make it appear that the character is holding it with his right hand. Where the character was originally holding a globe, a highway to a computer is placed instead. An owl with a graduation cap stands on the highway and the computer monitor is attached with bloody tentacles which are made to appear as though they have come out of the monitor. The golden arches, symbolizing the popular fast-food chain, McDonald’s, are placed on the lower right-hand side of the artifact.
Symbolism
The child is mainly symbolized by the World of Warcraft character. This encapsulates the idea of the child in today’s modern world as one absorbed into the virtual world to sometimes a point of assuming an identity that deviates from the one outside the game world (Turkle, 1997). In earlier decades, limited technology restricted a child’s interaction with those with who he can physically interact with. The World of Warcraft is played in teams and each player has distinct skills for instance Mage, Warrior, or Druid, and players are required to enhance their skills through cooperation and coordination with different players. The game offers challenging problems which are required to be solved through “virtually routinized” solutions (Gee, 2005) which through regular practice and play results in the “Cycle of Expertise” enabling the player to become experts, an opportunity that enables advanced thinking skills and abilities among players (Bereiter and Scardamalia, 1993).
These games come in different forms, with each targeting a different age group of users. While World of Warcraft itself may be designed for older users, there are many other MMORPGs such as Pangya and that appeal to younger people and provide the same freedom of anonymity. Besides encouraging players to think about relationships, these games enable children to develop lateral thinking skills about the implications of their actions, which is an essential aspect in the developmental stage of children (Gee, 2005).
Thus, the symbolism of the child as an online game character depicts that children of 2009 are generally freer than those in previous decades to express themselves with no consequence, and this is a freedom that is largely granted by technology. The PSP symbolizes a version of the play in 2009, which greatly contrasts with the depiction of Dyson (2007) of child play during the late ’30s. In Dyson (2007), the play was described as largely physical activity, involving writing, singing, and dancing. In the modern-day of 2009, play largely consists of sitting down in a corner and turning on a PSP, followed by hours of engrossed attention to whatever game the child was playing.
This is an alarming element of childhood today, especially at the physical level. Since children are not as motivated to go out and play now as they were before the rise of gaming consoles like the PSP, they become more prone to becoming overweight from lack of physical activity. This is aggravated by fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, which continue to serve cholesterol-high food to their patrons and target young children in particular with their advertisements and marketing strategies. Thus, the child of 2009 faces the temptation of not being physically active and ending up obese. Lastly, the highway leading to the computer with an owl on the road is a symbolism of the greater access to knowledge and information that children of today have due to the easy availability of computers. Unlike decades earlier where knowledge was only mainly accessible in schools and libraries, the internet provides an avenue for children to learn about anything and everything that they wish to learn about. Unfortunately, though, the internet is not without its dangers, as represented by the bloody tentacles reaching out from the monitor. These tentacles are the dangers of exposure to unhealthy content on the internet, which a child may be susceptible to if not properly supervised.
Conclusion
Experiencing childhood in 2009 includes various advantages created by advanced technology that has granted children greater access to knowledge and more exciting worlds for play. Research and studies indicate that media and games do in some way support learning and development of lateral thinking skills in children by providing them with virtual environments. However, at the same time, these new innovations demotivate children from experiencing what was good with the ways of the previous generations, while making them vulnerable to the dangers created by the innovations of today.
References
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