In 1993, the first Jurassic Park movie hit the box office with incredible success. The movie had visual effects so sharp that it almost looked real. The dinosaurs depicted were so realistic and true to the originals that it made a whole generation of kids become fans of dinosaurs. It literally sparked a frenzy among kids of the 90s to search and read anything about dinosaurs.
Publishers rushed to release books, magazines, and comics about dinosaurs to profit from such a high demand. Museums opened new collections that include dinosaur fossils. Children were led to activities consisting of digging for dinosaur bones at various sites. Toys and miniatures of different dinosaur species became very popular, selling tens of thousands.
It was fun for kids to enjoy those amenities. However, the real benefit of the dinosaur madness came with the fact that it instilled a sense of scientific curiosity in children. They were curious about how these creatures lived, how they were fed, and sadly, how they all died and went extinct. No wonder most of these kids wanted to be paleontologists back then.
The generation that had been through this frenzy is believed to have engaged in STEM more than the generations that follow. Some of them sought careers in engineering and academics. Others, when grown up to become adults, have been into science as a hobby.
After this “dinosaur frenzy” died down, new generations got addicted to areas that do not always benefit them. Kids of today are so very much bound to video games and mobile phones that they have been made to neglect any interest in science.
