MAR 13 - One of the lesser known impacts of globalisation is the effect it has on children’s perceptions. There was a time when parents could satisfy their children’s whims with a balloon or with a plastic gun that made all sorts of ambulance sounds. That time has been relegated to some deep hole of history, and children now no longer drool over a toy gun. Instead, cable television has made them all more demanding, and if you are a parent, you would probably roll your eyes over the demands children make these days.

Wooden animal figures have been replaced with action figures and video games; literature with Twilight; balloons with Transformer robots; and dresses with jeans. A child today will probably know the origins of Megatron better than he knows the history of the Shah dynasty, though both are equally complicated. So why is this sudden lurch towards television and its avatars?

“Children nowadays emulate their idols on TV; they want to dress up like them and play the games they do,” says Kamal Tuladhar, proprietor of Kool Kidz at Sherpa Mall.

But the change isn’t only in their apparel. You would be surprised to hear what kids today read. “When we had just started in 1983, we used to sell a lot of Amar Chitra Katha, and illustrated editions of The Gita, Ramayan, and Mahabharat,” says Ram Chandra Timothy, Managing Director of Ekta Books. “Now, the demand for these books is negligible.” It is not only comics which aren’t cool among the children any more. Educational book sales have also lowered, while more interactive books like colouring books, sticker books, and pop-ups have increased in sales. If there is one literature that has survived the onslaught, it is Grimm’s fairy tales. Cinderella still sells as much as a 100 copies in three months, according to Jeevan Shrestha, sales person at Lotus Books and Gift Shop in City Centre.

One doesn’t need to be told that Twilight is the new Dickens. Or that Harry Potter is the new Shakespeare. But if one delves into the younger age groups’ reading habits, brightly-illustrated books are the obvious choice. Suvani Singh of Quixote’s Cove says, “The highest-selling children’s books are mostly picture books with brilliant illustrations and great stories. A combination of brilliant illustrations always attracts kids, while good stories will attract the parents.”

There is also a noticeable shift towards what can be perceived as ‘Western influence’. Children are still reading illustrated books, but there is no longer the craze for the Amar Chitra Kathas that were a generation ahead’s introduction to the subcontinent’s culture. Instead, it is a shift towards what children watch on television, and hence, the drift towards Western children’s books such as those of Dr. Seuss and Beatrix Potter.

In a way, Japanese anime and Hollywood films make much more of a lasting impact on children today than their local fairytales or traditions. Which brings us to another area of children’s marketing that has witnessed a drastic change: toys.

Yes, there are remote-controlled cars still, but imagine these: an anti-gravitational globe; life-like action figures inspired from the latest superhero films; spy-glasses; mini golf sets; and trading cards of Pokemon, Ben 10, or the latest anime that is beamed on Cartoon Network. “Children avidly watch television and want action figures of their favourite heroes,” says a sales executive at The Toy Store in City Centre Mall. More than half of his store is stocked with action figures of famous cartoon and film protagonists (and antagonists as well).

Instead, snakes and ladders, and chess sets, don’t figure anywhere on the list nowadays. “Educational games don’t sell as much because kids want to have fun, not something that reminds them of studies,” says the same executive. “Kids nowadays know what they want, and will accept only that,” agrees Tuladhar.

There is also the rather disturbing tendency of boys buying toy weapons. “The demand for violent toys is huge,” concedes Tuladhar. “We are very particular about the toys we stock, and don’t stock guns with bullets and projectiles.” That’s a rather scary thought—kids brandishing AKs (even toys) rather than Lego sets. And that does speak a lot about the state of the country as well, and what children are watching these days.

Singh believes that parents are extremely important in choosing what a kid reads or plays with. Which is an extremely important point. The effect of mass-media and cable television means children tend to emulate what they see on these mediums. And thus, the demand for

certain toys or books or clothes is generated.

Take, for example, the clothes that Hannah Montana wears. Disney’s creation of a perfect-girl image means there are many girls who want to emulate her to the T—meaning girls today like to look more adult that their age may suggest. Incidentally, the Hannah Montana series of dolls has beaten Barbie to the backshelf already. And with that, has come a radical change in the fashion of kids.

“Until a certain age, kids are happy with what their parents buy. After they cross eight, they know what they want, and won’t accept anything else,” says Tuladhar. “What they want is mostly what they see on TV.” While younger girls still prefer dresses and more frilly wear, Tuladhar says, “For pre-teens, dresses are out; jeans are in. They want pretty tops,

but rather than skirts, they prefer jeans.” 

But globalisation has also a few plus points. Education is no longer restricted to boring textbooks, and interactive software means learning is more fun now. Singh says, “Interactive elements to books like The 39 Clues series are an engaging way to stimulate children to read as well as become tech savvy.”

What this means is that a changing, more technologically advanced, and a globalised society influences children much more than we as adults can imagine. In the years when cognitive memory is just beginning to establish itself, what children read or watch is extremely important. And that is where the parents must be careful.

Posted on: 2010-03-13 03:15

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