Fame more than kindness.

A sad fact from Science Daily – kids’ TV shows are teaching them that it’s better to be famous than it is to be kind:

On a list of 16 values, fame jumped from the 15th spot, where it was in both 1987 and 1997, to the first spot in 2007. From 1997 to 2007, benevolence (being kind and helping others) fell from second to 13th, and tradition dropped from fourth to 15th.

The study assessed the values of characters in popular television shows in each decade from 1967 to 2007, with two shows per decade evaluated, including “Andy Griffith” and “The Lucy Show” in 1967, “Laverne & Shirley” and “Happy Days” in 1977, and “American Idol” and “Hannah Montana” in 2007.

“I was shocked, especially by the dramatic changes in the last 10 years,” said Yalda T. Uhls, a UCLA doctoral student in developmental psychology and the lead author of the study. “I thought fame would be important but did not expect this drastic an increase or such a dramatic decrease in other values, such as community feeling. If you believe that television reflects the culture, as I do, then American culture has changed drastically.”

Before laying all the blame on the Disney Channel generation, check out this wrinkle:

“The biggest change occurred from 1997 to 2007, when YouTube, Facebook and Twitter exploded in popularity,” Uhls said. “Their growth parallels the rise in narcissism and the drop in empathy among college students in the United States, as other research has shown. We don’t think this is a coincidence. Changes we have seen in narcissism and empathy are being reflected on television. In the past, children had their home, community and school; now they have thousands of ‘friends’ who look at their photos and their posts and comment on them. The growth of social media gives children access to an audience beyond the school grounds.”

“If you have 400 or more Facebook friends, which many high school and college students do, you are on stage,” Greenfield said.

Oh, dear.

[Hat tip to Mr. Glutting.]