“Media can be factually made with a child/family audience in mind” and “media for children/family audiences can be well made and engaging pieces of art” and “if you are an adult you should have a more diverse media diet than what exists to target an audience of primary middle and grade schoolers” and “it’s okay to watch a cartoon as an adult and enjoy it” can coexist.
I’m going to be completely insufferable here under the cut
This is a good post and I agree with it all except for the “you should” bit. I think it’s not at all helpful to frame things as though all adults have some kind of obligation or moral imperative to do certain things for themselves, and explicitly using the words “you should” in a post WILL make readers defensive.
I liked a mutual’s framing of it as “If you only [consume stories] with a target audience of children, you are depriving yourself of joy, but it’s not my job to force joy upon you.” People who never read, listen to, watch, or experience any kind of fiction other than that with a target audience of grade schoolers may also be depriving themselves of learning or wisdom or self-reflection opportunities, but this is a purely personal choice.
No one has any obligation toward self-improvement or joy-seeking or growth, so long as they aren’t hurting anyone else in the process.
However, it would benefit people to seek additional joy and improve themselves.
It would probably benefit those around them as well, but those around them are not entitled to those benefits.
So “you should have a media diet that…” is the one outlier here. There is no “should” about what you’re watching or reading in your own free time.
It would be better for you if you have a more diverse media diet, though.
