As anyone who knows me well can tell you, I love cartoons. Ever since I was a child, I've been obsessed with animation. From Rugrats to Fairly Odd Parents to Spongebob, I soaked it all in. As I write this, I can't even remember which cartoon was my favorite. I loved all of them. I would spend hours just watching these stories that were brought to life by the imagination of a team of creative individuals.
Now, as an adult, I still watch cartoons. Every time Steven Universe or Adventure Time update, I immediately watch the episode. As I grew up, though, the reasons that I watched cartoons changed. When I was a child, I was enthralled by the bright colors, the fast-paced action, and the gag-based humor. Now, I watch cartoons far more for the story and what it means to me.
The first example of this occurred while I was in high school. I had recently been rejected by a girl I cared a lot for, and I was very sad. During this time, I latched onto the show Adventure Time, where the main character was in a relationship with a princess. I watched their relationship grow as the show went along, and (spoiler alert) when the two broke up, I was heartbroken. I had invested myself in their relationship so much that I was in pain after these two fictional characters broke up.
With that in mind, I want to say that cartoons are dangerous when you are fighting depression. I've personally dealt with a dark cloud hovering over my head for over a decade, and there's no end in sight. When I watch cartoons, I become so invested that I can lose track of reality. What happens is that I take my broken emotions and place them into the situations that I'm visualizing. Because these shows are cartoons, everyone generally ends up right in the end, allowing me a moment of glorious triumph. But then reality sets back in, and I realize that I'm still broken. The show may have turned out okay in the end, but my life is still broken. My head is still broken.
So, cartoons are bad, right? No. As I mentioned, I still watch cartoons in spite of all that I just said. Why I do this is that there is still something good in cartoons. We are terrible at facing our own problems, so sometimes, we need to see our problems in a different light. Cartoons are great at doing this because the fantasy element that is often present helps us see issues in a different light. This helps us deal with our problems. For example, that sadness I felt while watching Adventure Time actually helped me face my own feelings of rejection. Through this fictional break-up, I was better able to focus on my own problems and how to fix them.
There is still a danger in it, though. If you do not take care of your problems and only let in extraneous sadness, then depression will quickly take hold, not letting go. If you have depression, you need to fight it. This doesn't just apply to cartoons. Video games, movies, books, and all other forms of media can hit the depressed mind in the same way. If you are dealing with depression right now, watch your content. See what you are taking part in, and make sure that you are able to handle it. Sometimes the hardest thing to admit is that you are not strong enough to participate in certain forms of media.
But don't avoid it. If all you do is hide away, then you will never grow. You have to push your boundaries and grow, even if it's hard. Cartoons, especially modern ones, deal with many issues that are very relevant to our lives. Enjoy them, and learn from them. Just make sure that you're taking care of yourself the whole time.
For this week, I'm going to give a little content warning here. This song is fine by itself and is a wonderful cover of a beautiful song. This band, though, mostly does raunchy comedy songs. If you are offended by swearing, sexual innuendos, or various other jokes about phallic objects, you should not check out their music. This song, though, is wonderful for anyone, so enjoy:
