Kids aren't the only ones who need limited screen time – gorillas do, too.
That's according to a memo by a zoo in Toronto that is worried about the well-being of its animals.
A sign posted outside of the Toronto Zoo's gorilla enclosure asks guests to "refrain from showing them any videos or photos, as some content can be upsetting and affect their relationships and behaviour within their family," according to CTV News.
A behavioral supervisor at the zoo said it's a best practice both for the gorillas and the zoo guests.
"We just want the gorillas to be able to be gorillas," Hollie Ross told CTV News. "And when our guests come to the zoo, we want them to be able to see gorillas in a very natural state, and what they would be doing naturally – to sort of connect with them on that level."
"We just want to make sure that we know the content," Ross added. "Very much like managing an account for a child or something, you want to make sure that your parental controls are on, and that you're in control of what the content is that they're seeing."
According to the zoo's website, the gorillas do watch nature documentaries "with great interest" on occasion. Earlier this year, the zoo installed a donated flatscreen TV for one gorilla who was recovering from an illness.
Another gorilla, named Nassir, is "the epitome of a teenager, fascinated by videos," according to the website. The zoo's site said if the 13-year-old gorilla had his way, "screen time would dominate his life."
"We don't really want our guests coming and showing them videos. We would rather have them see them do gorilla things," Ross told CTV. "Nassir, in particular, was really interested in seeing different videos. I think, mostly, he was seeing videos of other animals. But, I think what is really important is that he's able to just hang out with his brother and be a gorilla."
It's just as fucked up to me when a small child, one that would otherwise be entertained by being around other children or just playing pretend with tangible objects on-hand, gets the initial dopamine flood from a deliberately-designed psychologically addictive phone game and that flood numbs the child's interest in pretty much anything else. I've seen it first hand, and it gets ugly if the phone is for any reason taken away from the small child that was previously fine without it.
I'm so curious to see what happens with the Elsagate generation. I saw how cartoonbrain from the 80s-90s negatively impacted my generation but at least those cartoons were usually educational in some way. The kids being raised by the youtube algorithm are just getting an endless nonsensical hallucination of all the faces they recognise from the largest media companies on earth. They're hooked into a spectacle that's so far beyond what television was for me.
I saw how cartoonbrain from the 80s-90s negatively impacted my generation but at least those cartoons were usually educational in some way.
Like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8K08AcVru0
I saw how cartoonbrain from the 80s-90s negatively impacted my generation
how?
It's most evident with a show like South Park, raising an entire generation of reactionary edgelords. Family Guy, Rick and Morty, My Little Pony, anime, there are a lot of cartoons which heavily influenced that particular age group across their childhood/young adulthood.
It makes me glad that I grew up before personal as electronics were that widespread. And even then I think I had too much access to screens
Maybe the toronto should stop putting animals in cages for display
