Children's television and overstimulation

Sometimes I wonder where our stress really begins.

It doesn’t only start a school.
Of course, exams play a role, and probably the (often unconscious) pressure to perform. And social media certainly adds to it.
But maybe it starts much earlier.

Recently, I came across a comparison between children's television from the past and children's television today.

You know the kind of thing.
We grew up watching simple children's programs. Two tv channels to choose from.
My children watched SpongeBob and Teletubbies.
Today, there’s Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, and countless dedicated children's channels.

And to be completely honest? It was an eye-opener.

How fast everyone talks.
How the screen changes every few seconds.
How busy and restless everything feels.
How some characters speak: full of chaos, sarcasm, or constant hyper-energy.

It made me feel nervous. And quite irritated.

It also made me think back to when my own children were young.
There were certain programs they simply weren't allowed to watch.
Not because I was a strict mother. (Okay... maybe sometimes a little.)
But because I could see what it did to them.

At the time, I couldn't explain it the way I might now. I had no idea how much this could demand from a developing nervous system.
But I did know one thing:

this is too much.
Too fast.
Too loud.
Too restless.
Too mindless.

Some programs felt as if a child wasn't allowed a single moment to breathe.
Their attention was pulled in a different direction every few seconds.

At the time, we were living in Sydney. Of course, there were calmer programs too, such as Bananas in Pyjamas, Blue's Clues, and High-5.

But even then, teachers at the local primary school were already observing that many children's attention spans seemed to last about seven minutes: the exact time between commercial breaks...

Of course, not every child responds in the same way. But with sensitive children, you sometimes notice it immediately.

More restless.
Shorter tempers.
As if their system is still switched on long after the television has been turned off.

And when I look at some of today's children's programs, I find myself wondering:

What have we actually come to accept as normal?

Not just the speed.
But also the tone.
The way some cartoon characters speak to parents, teachers, and other adults.
Mocking. Disrespectful. Full of sarcasm.
As if respect is old-fashioned and chaos is supposed to be funny.

I probably sound like I'm a hundred years old. 😉
But that's not why I decided to write this Snippet.

The real question is:

What does this do to a child's brain while it is still developing?
To a nervous system that actually needs calm, predictability, and space to process?

Because overstimulation rarely starts with one big event.

It builds gradually, one small piece at a time.

A nervous system becoming accustomed to constant input.
A mind that starts to find silence uncomfortable.
A body that no longer remembers how to truly relax.

And honestly?

Perhaps we adults recognize that in ourselves as well.

Always something on...
Always noise...
Always scrolling...
Always stimulation...