Is media screwing our confidence?
The Eurovision Song Festival
Some days ago the Eurovision Song Contest took place in Lisbon, Portugal. As usual in recent years, the spectacularity and care about the visual aspect of the show contrasted heavily with the bad quality of the songs (and lack of taste, I guess). For that reason, and since I can't really ignore the music and it seems dumb to see the festival with a muted TV, I simply skipped that show as usual.
However, the mediatic effect of last year's winning song was very interesting to me, as a teacher. Media kept referring to the singer as a natural talented musician, born with the only thing he needed: talent.
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Last year's winner said "music is not fireworks". No one listened to him. Source: Reuters
Focusing on "talent" is a easy strategy for the media to awe the public. But as a teacher, I think that focus has a very harmful effect on kids. First of all, because talent has a minimal effect on the quality of a musician, and I know several excepcional musicians that aren't talented at all. And secondly, because a talented musician can do nothing without the knowledge and experience to compose, improvise and talk the same language as the musicians who work with him.
Depression
The idea that everything just happens out of pure talent is also biasing kids and people in general. A very polished musical work can be made to look improvised, specially for untrained ears. Contests like "The Voice" or "Got Talent" really try to make us believe a kid just "knows" how to sing or play, and it contrasts like hell when you try to play the violin yourself for the first time. The reality is shocking.
My students usually want to be like 2cellos. I say "ok great! But these guys had 20+ years of learning and won several cello international competitions. If you want to do what they do... trust me and work harder!".
This doesn't happen only with musicians. Here are some examples:
- Sportsmen - When referring to football (soccer, in the US) players, media tends to focus on the "talented" Lionel Messi. Like he was born with everything it takes. That's obviously not true, since he trained for years and years with 100% energy to achieve success. A kid may believe he or she doesn't have the required "talent" and simply quit a sport that could be good for his physical, civical, and mental health.
I'm here once again because of talent, hard work and dedication
- Bloggers and public personalities - They also seem to be OK all the time, like if they never feel lonely, sad, blue or depressed. That illusion can create a barrier that can destroy a kid's self-confidence and shift his sense of self. Instead, we need to tell kids that bloggers are just making their job, and that it's ok to feel like shit, sometimes. We all do!
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Source
Are contests a kind of negative media?
I think yes, at least in the way they're presented. Most of them don't focus on the effort, but on that invisible force that either you have or have not. You got to be born with it, otherwise just forget it and do something else.
The solution is simple: just turn off the TV and engage with real life situations. Your football teacher has been through a lot, like everyone else, so go and ask him! Do what he says!
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I often thought like this as a kid and it deterred me from trying a lot of things I wanted to. I had a natural "talent" for gymnastics and did that for many years because I thought well this is my talent and although I want to try other things like music and painting I'm not gifted in those areas so it's a waste of time.
Looking back now as an adult with a bit more understanding, I'm giving those things a chance and letting myself take the time to enjoy learning them.
However, I do agree very much with you, in that the media and society in general, present these "talents" to us in an unfair way and set us up for failure with unreal expectations.. I try to teach my kids differently so they realize that all skills take time to master - no matter what it is.
Sure! I agree with you. We don't need to do only what we think we're talented to do, since we can profit from the path, the learning, the experience!
I was also under this same impression for quite some time when I finally decided to study up on philosophy and tried to understand the World. And one of the earliest of topics I thought as a kid was why they promote “talent” in kids at such an early age. I believe that due to how the economy has been globally and how shitty recessions/depressions, that we eventually molded and accepted the idea of “talent.” And when that is coupled with ruthless competition, it gives rise to things you have analyzed and their outcomes of that outcome. Especially doesn’t help when they think that the coming/existing social ills coming out of contemporary competition at such an early age can be resolved be resolved by making kids more competitively. I say this is a socio-economic disaster that, though slowly building up, will blow into a huge gasket.
Well, probably... I'd approach the pure human nature that sees the "talent" as an unhuman characteristic, specially "perfect" and "pure" human beings such as kids. This has been around for centuries (Mozart was touring in Europe as a child-prodigy, for instance).
The point is that TV projects this to the masses, since it brings audiences, without any effort towards masses's education on the value of work and effort.
My opinion is actually a bit more radical than presented here. Bartók said once "competitions are for horses, not for artists". I think we should leave the horses in peace as well :)
And to add unto this conversation to just add unto my comment. Not that I necessarily disagree with yours (might be a problem of language here and not that we have actual conflicting opinions):
I’m basically saying that the worship of “talent” is dehumanizing those who are genuinely talented and those trying to become as such. That is, that talent isn’t given in birth but only built up by experience, and some are faster to acquire and utilize that experience than others. Thus why Mozart was talented because he had prior experience before touring, understood very well that experience in relationship to what he wanted to be and had a contingently positive path laid out for him that further made him more talented. He never really had to experience the power of TV projections nor calls for finding their “talents.”
But with modern society, we promote “talent” searching like it is innate in all kids to have a “talent” and not be able to develop ones over time with labor. Most of the time, a kid’s actual talent is most of the time the one they actual liked to do as a kid and is willing to labor for. Exampli gratia, a kid likes what a car mechanic does and is exposed to the trade constantly, more than likely they’ll become a car mechanic or a mechanic of some kind. And sometime’s a kid’s talent runs into “talents” society is pushing on them to have.
Nonetheless, I agree we should leave the horses in peace because we realistically don’t know if and can’t communicate with them if they like competition or not. But horses working together seems to be as evident as human tribal societies were as well. We’re social creatures, not competitive machines!
So I say let’s be realists and demand the impossible. Let’s demand for and struggle towards a noncompetitive and collective future where we all can feel free to be individual humans as such.
Well, I don't see "talent" as the innate "knowledge" or "experience", but as the ability of learning and acquiring proficiency quicker than most people. So I guess we do agree! :)
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what was your favourite song of this years Eurovision song contest?
I didn't hear any of them except the duo Salvador Sobral/Caetano Veloso at the end :) and it was amazing!
That was quite good performance, yeah. The song is awesome. My favourite was spanish duet, but it didn't get what it deserved. It wasn't flashy enough. As you mentioned, Eurovision is all about, who's got bigger show.
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