Rereading My Childhood – A Year With the BSC #48: Turn On the TV

A Year With the BSC is an informal series wherein I explore the 1990’s CD-ROM video game The Baby-sitters Club Friendship Kit. The game is more of a personal organizer; it features with a calendar, an address book, a stationary kit, a flyer maker, and a personality profile. I’m focusing on the more interesting aspect of the game: the personalized letters and the journal entries. The full list of entries can be found at rereadingmychildhood.com.

Previously On A Year With the BSC #47: The Long Game

Looks like Mary Anne has some complaining to do!

Okay, if you force them into games, they’ll just resent you and hate the games more. If they want to watch tv, just let them watch tv. Jessi weighs in on this issue.

Well, not everyone wants to dance all the time, Jessi, that’s not better.

Look, I was a part of that generation that watched too much TV and I remember news reports about how much TV kids are watching. My school even had a “Turn Off the TV Week” at my school and it was heavily promoted. (I thought it was mandatory and I went to my teacher, in tears, about how I didn’t want to miss my shows. My teacher told me I didn’t have to participate. Thank you, Ms. Sawyer, because it was “The Dark Phoenix Saga” on X-Men: The Animated Series, and anyone who knows anything knows the importance of Jean Grey’s relationship with the M’Kraan Crystal.) The only thing watching too much TV has done is that I can play along to TV theme song games on YouTube and do a pretty good job.

The new issue is if kids watch too much YouTube or play on their phones too much. The only difference is that I never had access to creepy pornography or bullshit flat earth videos while watching Fox Kids at four in the afternoon. I did have to learn the difference between TV and reality like everyone else. My father pointing to the TV and saying, “TV,” and then waving his arms around him and saying, “Reality,” is still etched into my brain like the theme song to Duck Tails. So, really, the issue is figuring out a way to teach kids the difference between the things they see on a computer screen and the things they see in real life.

And we need to just get rid of Flat Earthers. I say send them all the Antarctic to find that stupid wall they keep talking about with no internet access and don’t let them back until they figure out they’re idiots or they find their stupid wall. And take the border wall with you!

Next Time on A Year With the BSC #49: Neither a Simone Nor a Biles Be