Kids these days are constantly looking to get the next best thing, or act how the “popular” people would act. In the article “Commodifying Kids: The Forgotten Crisis,” Giroux talks about the affects the media market is having on children of today. The media is “brainwashing” kids into buying their products and catching them while they are young. The children of today are measuring their worth by the things they own or the way they act, which is largely due in part to the media market. While I do agree with Giroux on how the media market is to blame for the strong influence of children, I also think that the parents should share some of the blame for giving into their child’s desires and buying and encouraging them to get the top products.
It has been said that children are like sponges when it comes to attaining knowledge. This is true whether they are learning to speak or how to show emotion. The violence and risky behaviors as depicted on TV can have a profound effect on a young developing mind. It is well known that the first two years of life is when the brain undergoes critical development phases. During this time it is important that kids develop an accurate perception of the world they are growing up in.
In the average home, however, TV is on six or seven hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. As the first arm of organized society that children meet, it has the effect of "sanctioning" or socially certifying whatever and whoever appears on the screen. Its compelling complex of sound, pictures and text largely determines which issues, people and actions, we regard as "real" or important. We must keep this space sacred for the education of young minds. The problem of television violence and its possible affect on our youth has many creative solutions if we as a community can come together and implement them.
"Carol Bartz." The Guardian. The Guardian, 07 Mar 2011. Web. 19 Nov 2013.
The challenge is to differentiate the media messages that are potentially harmful from those that are positive or prosocial in nature.” Children have clearly experienced a substantial amount of violence in media, especially TV, teaching children to act aggressively and antisocial, but media also can teach ... ... middle of paper ... ... a higher risk of being overweight at age 6. This indicates that a child’s eating habits should be monitored while they are watching TV and that children should be more active and exchange an hour of TV for an hour of physical activity to decrease the risk of obesity. Moreover, media as a whole has a huge effect on children. Media is an influential source in a young child’s life, they learn from different types of media, they take what they see for example on TV, and that becomes how they view the world. Furthermore, children learn how to act from media they learn social skills whether it is negative or positive, they also achieve their academic approaches from various technology means, and may become obese if they are influenced too much.
There is no doubt that our generation is corrupted because we are so exposed to media and has changed the world on how we views it. There are precisely hundred of channels to choose from all depend on what you feel like viewing especially when it comes to children, that is why cables and satellite providers has built in the parental controls. Bandura's a psychologist that study the observational studies shows preschoolers enthusiastically mimicking the action of an adult pummeling a Bobo doll. His research provided a powerful paradigm to study the effect of entertainment violence. Bandura's found that observation action are likely to be imitated when they are performed by ones favorite characters, most of the time the model is rewarded for his or her action and not punished for his/her action.
Many popular Disney movies show stereotypical gender roles, the false representation of other groups and cultures, which may affect children negatively in the feature. Socialization helps us develop ways in which people develop perceptions, feelings, and beliefs. Socialization makes us who we are. The mass media is one agent of socialization in which significant developments of socialization occurs (Giddens 72).” Around age one or two children, “gradually come to understand that others have distinct identities, consciousness, and needs separate from their own (Giddens 70).” It is important to understand the messages given to young kids by the media because throughout their whole life they will keep and carry the information they learned about themselves and apply it to the world around them. The most common stereotypical gender roles shown in Disney movies are women as weak and helpless, more often than not waiting for her prince to come save her such as snow white and sleeping beauty.
"Agnes De Mille Quotes." BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 01 Oct. 2013.
Oprah.com. Harpo Inc, 17 May 2011. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
One of the main influences that television is believed to have is on children’s behaviour, in particular causing aggression and violence. Perhaps one of the most controversial issues surrounding television, violence on television and the effects it has on viewers has been heavily researched and studied over the years. It has been found that children see around 10,000 acts of violence per year on television (Gerbner, G cited in Morgan 2002). Gerbner’s (ibid) findings show that since the 1960s the number of violent acts have been stable, and in children’s programmes there are about 25 violent acts per hour. Some theorists argue viewing violence on television has an adverse effect on children and over the years a number of studies have consistently found that there is a correlation between viewing television violence and increased aggression and violence in children.