Arguing in Favor of Childlike Innocence—A New Investigation Into ‘The Adult—Child’

Lin Weixuan

Abstract ： In The Disappearance of Childhood， Neil Postman feels worried about the appearance of the phenomenon of childified adults or adults being childified. First， the conception of childified adults will cause people to mistake that there is a distinction between the child and the adult. “It is not the fault of the two， but the problem lies in the fact that the entertainer， a social role created by the new media， has gradually taken the place of the two.

Key words： Neil Postman； the disappearance of childhood；child， adult

“Adultified children” and “childified adults” are a group of core conceptions that Neil Postman puts forward in The Disappearance of Childhood.He concluded that “social roles are determined by specific conditions of the information environment and believes that childhood and adulthood are both the results of an environment base on the media ecology standpoint.

First， if we describe the disappearance of childhood and the disappearance of adulthood simply as infantalization of adults and adultification of children， this rude action is apt to give people a false impression： Children cannot be like adults and adults must get rid of all the characteristics of the child and be pure adults.

That “a great man is one who does not lose the innocent heart of a child” is Mencius high praise of the heart of a child and the best summary of the relationship between children and adults. This thesis of MenciusA great man can combine virtues with the heaven and earth， shines together with the sun and the moon， and follows the order of the four seasons. And he can got the bless of the god.”

In a word， there are an immense number of books dealing with children and the Second， the general wording of the adultified children or the childified adults cannot summarize accurately the phenomenon and the cause of the disappearance of childhood. It can easily make people think that the disappearance of childhood is the result of simultaneous expansion of adults （literate people） or children and the mutual annihilation （See Figure 1）.. As shown in Figure 2， the new media such as telegraph and television and the entertainer that the new media gives birth to are the arch criminals. It is the entertainer that has launched mad attack on “children” and “adults”， which has diminished the two to a great extent.

As early as the middle period of last century， McLuhan revealed the huge power of the media to us. He resolutely denied the argument that the media is neutral represented by David Sarnoff and proposed his famous view that “the medium is the message”. That“the medium is the message means： Any influence of any media （i.e. any extension of man ） on individuals and society is produced by the characteristics of the medium itself. “Any extension of ourselves”， or more broadly， one could know nothing. As the medium directly determines our way of looking at the world， it will certainly have fundamental influence on every aspect of human society.

In a word， in the symbolic world of typography， an adult must first be a literate man. But all this changed in the electronic and video world. In 1837， the experiment of telegraph communication was successful for the first time， However， the image revolution that took place afterwards fundamentally shook the basis of the world of words. Images and words are opposite.

Therefore， in this light， many philosophers mentioned in this article are consistent with Postman in that they are all determined to guard childhood. It requires a fundamental precondition to use childhood and the heart of a child as the ideological weapon to criticize current malpractice and ask people not to lose their valuable heart of a child and that precondition is a complete childhood that is not eroded. When childhood has broken up and fallen to pieces，and Wordsworth came to today， they would also feel sorry and sad for the disappearance of childhood as Postman does. Save childhood， which ought to be a consensus of everyone in our age.