Bringing up children weaned on pop culture
Children watch television.
Early this week, I came across a news article by CNN reporting that Nike had sued MSCHF, an American art collective, over the “Satan Shoe” that they recently released, made using modified Nike Air Max 97s.
They produced just 666 pairs, with a pair selling for over Sh100, 000, according to various news outlets, and they sold out in less than a minute. The shoes, among other elements, are said to contain real human blood.
But what made me read this news article to the end is when it mentioned that the shoes had been launched in collaboration with rapper Lil Nas X. I’m not a devoted music fan, and only got to learn about the existence of this 22-year-old rapper who is all the rage now because my children like to watch a particular video of a group of cute children dancing to ‘Old Town Road’, the country rap song that propelled him to prominence.
I hadn’t even watched the original video of that song until I came across this article, in which I also got to learn that the unveiling of the shoes coincided with the release of the rapper’s latest song ‘Call Me By Your Name’, where he descends to hell on a stripper pole, looking the part in sparkly booty shorts, stripper boots and nothing else.
When he reaches his fiery destination, he gives satan an elaborate and suggestive lap dance before suddenly breaking his neck, a little smile on his lips, and then removes the crown from the devil’s head and wears it himself.
Controversial song
Some would call the video a work of art, but I was appalled, not for myself, but for my impressionable 11-year-old son and his peers who already know about this artist, and who have probably searched for other songs he has sung and have maybe come across this controversial song and video that most parents with young children have no idea exists. If they did, they would have a candid discussion with their children about it.
This brought to the fore the challenge that parents raising the current generation, which has been weaned on pop culture, have before them. Undue influence lurks from all corners, most of it in the name of art and freedom of expression.
When I was growing up, bad influence was mostly centred in school and around the neighbourhood, now it is not only in these places, but in the vast, no, endless world that is the internet, which has the power to corrupt young minds at the click of a mouse.
Glorify violence
During our time, our parents’ biggest worry was the weed-smoking, jobless young men that idled at the local shopping centre and the neighbour’s truant children who they forbade us from associating with in any form and would pull our ears if we as much as glanced their way.
Now parents are faced with this necessary evil called the internet, which is here to stay and which we cannot hide from our children. We are faced with the formidable responsibility of ensuring that when our children switch on our smart TVs or smart phones and other gadgets, they will not watch pornography, play online games that glorify violence and where paedophiles pry on young children, or watch ‘works of art’ like that video by Lil Nas X.
