In order to encourage Zimbabweans to preserve their own languages, storytelling has been encouraged in homes, churches, and children's centers. Storytelling brings parents and children together and is especially important in the large Zimbabwean families. Stories help each child to feel loved and also help mold children into good citizens. Since the 1970s there has been a dramatic decline in storytelling especially in urban areas. And the country has become increasingly urbanized.
Electronic information is available in urban settings and that discourages storytelling.
Television has become very popular and is an anti-social experience. Children sit passively in front of the screen. When parents read or tell stories, children are actively engaged in participating in the story. Economic problems have discouraged Zimbabwean families from including an extended family in the home, so grandparents are not available to tell stories. Almost all of the stories told during the 1940s to the 1960s have disappeared.