So why did 19 million Americans between 18 and 49 watch SpongeBob SquarePants every month in 2002??!!



Adapted for this source:

Diana West's The Death of the Grown - Up: How America's Arrested Development Is bringing Down Wester Civilization. 2007.

Pages 1 - 2:

"More adults, ages eighteen to forty - nine, watch the Cartoon Network than watch CNN.

"The National Academy of Sciences has, in 2002, redefined adolescence as the period extending from the onset of puberty, around twelve, to age thirty.

"The MacArthur Foundation has gone farther still, funding a major research project that argues that the transition to adulthood doesn't end until age thirty - four."

Humm ... . folks? Remember this popular song? From around 1980 or so? At U.C. Denver? Not to mention the Emily Griffith Opportunity School? :)

♪ You know my heart keeps telling me:
Your're not a kid at thirty - three!

♪ You play around you'll lose your wife,
You play too long you'll lose your life...♫

Anyway, back now to Diana West!

"Maybe this helps explain why about one - third of the fifty - six million Americans sitting down to watch SpongeBob SquarePants on Nickelodeon each month in 2002 were between the ages of eighteen and forty - nine.

"(Nickelodeon's core demographic group is between the ages of six and eleven).

"These [18 to 49 age group, o.k.?] are grown - ups who haven't left childhood.

"Then again, why should they?

"As movie producer and former Universal marketing executive Kathy Jones put it, There isn't any clear demarcation of what's for parents and what's for kids. We like the same music, we dress similarly...

"How did this happen?

"When did this happen?

"And why ... ?"

It took me several days to do it, but believe you me, this book is worth plowing all the way through.

It rocks!