Brainrot: Did TV in the 70s Shape Our Brains? Comparing Past and Present Media Influences on Neurological Development

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Subliminal messages
Garbage In, Garbage Out?

I suffer from brainrot.
According to an older relative, I have suffered a decline in my cognitive functioning and mental acuity because I receive my news from social media and internet-based news sites. My beloved boomer is skeptical about the internet.  She worries that getting news online isn't as reliable as tuning into CBS News and the Bakelite-bespectacled Walter Cronkite. 

But - NEWS FLASH - Walter Cronkite is dead.

In those golden days of television, when the world seemed to slow down for thirty minutes each night, we would gather around our bulky sets to watch Walter Cronkite on the CBS Nightly News. The soothing cadence of his voice and trustworthy eyes, framed by his iconic glasses, offered a reassuring anchor in a sea of global tumult. It was a time when news was a shared ritual, a collective experience, and Cronkite’s nightly broadcast felt like a trusted friend guiding us through the chaos. I remember trusty old Walter.  I recall sitting cross-legged on the living room floor while Grandpa reclined on his BarcaLounger.  I remember the Zenith on its metal Stand, rabbit ears reaching for the ceiling.  Those moments, with the soft hum of the Zenith and the comforting presence of family, seem like a warm embrace from the past.  The glow of the screen, casting a silvery-blue light, was more than just a news source-it was a portal to a world that felt simpler and more connected.  A time when truth and integrity seemed more tangible.

My Beloved Boomer's accusation - that I am suffering from brainrot - 

My Beloved Boomer's concern is not new; it mirrors past generations' anxieties about the media's influence on the mind.

Here’s a sobering thought: We often lament over the damage the internet does to the minds and morals of younger generations; just as our grandparents lamented what TV viewing would do to our brains. So now, I wonder, did the TV programming of my childhood do something to my brain? How did it subtly shape my neuropathways? Which messages were being implanted, if subliminally? Was TV viewing in the 70s as dangerous as internet consumption in the 2000s?

maybe go into children's programming - kids were kids, sesame street, 

and then go into the truth

work on above - do I need to call out ways the media lied then Watergate Scandal, Vietnam War reporting with overly optimistic or misleading information about the groundwar?
or should I stay focused on what we believed?

tie to below

  • Impact of TV on brain development
  • TV programming effects 1970s
  • Subliminal messages in TV shows
  • Media influence on childhood development
  • comparing tv and internet impact


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