Fighting Cocomelon For My Kids' Attention
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As the parent of a fresh child, I’m constantly on the look out for bloodthirsty corporations trying to drain my bloodthirsty kid’s soul. Well, I found one! J...

I though that Cocomelon videos are just dumb videos to keep children distracted, but I didn’t know that they are purposefully designed to keep children hooked. What’s your stance on their videos?

    • SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml
      28·
      17 days ago

      Once a month, children are brought to [a London studio], one at a time, and shown a handful of episodes to figure out exactly which parts of the shows are engaging and which are tuned out.

      For anyone older than 2 years old, the team deploys a whimsically named tool: the Distractatron.

      It’s a small TV screen, placed a few feet from the larger one, that plays a continuous loop of banal, real-world scenes — a guy pouring a cup of coffee, someone getting a haircut — each lasting about 20 seconds. Whenever a youngster looks away from the Moonbug show to glimpse the Distractatron, a note is jotted down.

      “It’s not super interesting, what’s on the Distractatron,” said Maurice Wheeler, who runs the research group. “But if they aren’t fully focused, they might go, ‘Oh, what’s that?’ and kind of drift over. We can see what they’re looking at and the exact moment when they got distracted.”

      What a waste of all lives involved.

      • waterdog9@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        3·
        4 days ago

        They actually did something similar when creating Sesame Street (and I think Blues Clues); the main difference being the goal was to make the educational parts the most attention grabbing, so kids with parents who just plop them in front of the TV would be more prepared for school.

    • A_norny_mousse@feddit.org
      17·
      16 days ago

      comparing Bluey and Cocomelon

      ugh, that’s not even a comparison.

      Fun fact btw: Bluey started off as an Australian public broadcasting production. Bought by Disney now, but I suspect they made a deal that gives them artistic freedom. Still sad that money wins.