On ADD and ADHD

I'm not one for letting young kids watch tv. Especially since much of what it consists of is crap. But I have this other theory.

Back in media classes in college, we were taught about how to keep the audiences' attention. One way: quick cuts from shot to shot by making edits every 2 to 3 seconds. Another way: create some movement within the shot if it's going to be longer than 2 to 3 seconds (i.e. by zooming in or out, panning left or right, tilting up or down, or having graphics come flying in). We are so used to it these days that we don't notice it. But count the number of times the shot changes, the camera moves or graphic appears in your average tv show.

Why is this significant?

Well... the whole point for cuts and movement is to keep your audiences' eye by creating these rapid movements to keep them watching. There exists this attention void that needs to be constantly filled. Wouldn't you think this is dangerous for little kids? The way the cuts and movement affect a child's attention has to be detrimental to them and transfer over into life as well. It's no surprise the amount of kids these days that have ADD and ADHD -- attention deficit disorders. I have no proof to back this but certainly there must be a correlation between kids with attention problems who also watch a medium that takes drastic measures to ensure a viewer's attention.

Now, look at the Baby Einstein videos. I like them because they don't "cut" between shots at all. You wouldn't notice this unless you were looking for it. The videos change shots either by wiping (with sound affects) or by dissolving. These transitions are must less jarring to the eye and foster a better type of attention in a child. It's smoother; softer than the drastic "cutting" that's on television.

The thing of it is: I'm also convinced that this is why people don't like baseball on television. Because the shot rarely changes as drastically as viewers are used to. It's also for this reason that I love baseball. "You can fall asleep and wake up 20 minutes later and realize you've not missed a thing."