19th June, 2012 Final Research Essay Is the Popular Korean Animation Character Pororo Really an Educational Friend? In South Korea, there is an ongoing Pororo boom among children. ‘Porong Porong Pororo’ is an original Korean animation series that is about the adventures of Pororo and his friends in the North Pole (Appendix 1). People call this penguin character as ‘Potongreung’ which means ‘President Pororo’ in Korean, as it is like the president among children. As this nickname represents, kids love this animation so much but this popularity is a huge problem because it has gotten to the point where no one questions its educational values. Currently as of June 19th, not a single article was found exposing about the negative aspects of Pororo. Mothers turn on Pororo for their kids, in the hope that it will have educational benefits. However, contrary to many mothers’ belief, Pororo can have some negative effects on children’s education in terms of intellectual, physical/social, and emotional development. First of all, Pororo can have a negative effect on a child’s intellectual development. Watching TV affects children’s brain activity to become passive towards learning. Studies show that watching TV reduces alpha waves, which is associated with relaxed meditative states. This creates “mind fog” state which means people feel it’s harder to concentrate and stay focused, like daydreaming (Carmichael). Thus if children watch the Pororo animation for a long time, their mind will be at a mental fog state which will make them harder to focus. This will lead to shortened attention span and even to attention disorder. There are already
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numerous studies proving the link between TV addiction and ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. According to research, one hour increase in TV watching increases the probability of developing ADHD by 10% (qtd. in Song). ADHD