So it seems that MTV turns 25 tomorrow and former Monkee Michael Nesmith, one of it’s early fathers, was heard to say “yeah but my mother invented Liquid Paper, which turned 52 the other day, so eat me.”
I don’t have a great deal of use for MTV, although I very much admired the film Hustle & Flow which was an MTV property, and I also laughed out loud at Jackass: The Movie. But like most of America, I stopped watching MTV in the 90’s.
In the recent past, I’ve been heard to say that in addition to making questionable content accessible to millions of children, MTV has also made another questionable contribution to the youth of this world: Attention Deficit Disorder. However, I always made such a comment with one-foot in the “jest” bucket, even though I felt that it was probably true.
And being that I value the truth so much, I figured I’d do a little digging to find more about ADD or ADHD as it’s known today, which stands for Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
In 1845, Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann, first alluded to ADHD with his series of children’s books about “Fidgity Phillip” which he wrote because he couldn’t find suitable materials to read to his 3-year-old son. Twenty-two years later, the term “hyperactive” appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary.
In 1902, The English pediatrician George Still, in a series of lectures to the Royal College of Physicians in England, described a condition which some have claimed is analogous to ADHD. Still described a group of children with significant behavioral problems, caused, he believed, by an innate genetic dysfunction and not by poor child rearing or environment.
The 1918, 1919 influenza pandemic left many survivors with encephalitis, affecting their neurological functions. Some of these exhibited immediate behavioral problems which correspond to ADD. This caused many to believe that the condition was the result of injury rather than genetics.
1934, Doctors in Providence, RI discovered that a group of children with behavioral problems improved after being treated with stimulant medication.
Ritalin became available in 1957.
I could go on with more detail but the point here is that I’m clearly wrong by blaming MTV for a disorder with such a long pedigree.
However, I can blame MTV for catering to children that have ADHD, making their condition possibly worse and helping create a vast market for the pharmaceutical companies. There I go with one foot in the “jest” bucket again!
So what’s the point of this post, other than to pad the blog with lengthy historical content? The point is that Michael Nesmith’s mother was a very creative person. Who’d have thought to paint over typewriter mistakes with a tiny little paintbrush!
In conclusion, Simon and Simon are not brothers.
