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Medias influence on teens
Medias influence on teens
Medias influence on teens
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Television is the dominant source of amusement for present day American children. There is a vast amount of literature professing how media influences children’s beliefs and behavior. As a mother, I refuse to allow a television set to give my son a real world education. Parents, we must take a stand and control the way our youth views media to allow for a positive and healthy childhood.
One way to reduce the impact of television on children is offering less TV in the home. A study published in Pediatrics, an academic journal, acknowledges how most parents do not regulate their child’s TV usage habitually. (Donnerstein and Strasburger, par. 3) Parents, we must set limits for our children. Not allowing your child to have a television set in their bedroom will limit their TV viewing. However, there are many other reasons children should not have a TV set in their bedroom. Pediatrics for Parents published a study done by The American Academy of Pediatrics titled “TV Watching and Social Skill” where they report “children with a TV in their bedroom have more sleep problems and less emotional reactivity” (N.A., par. 3). Another idea is to purchase “television-budgeting devices” (Munson and Smith, par. 2). “Boob-tube kids” in Prevention magazine informs parents about devices that “block out certain hours of viewing time” on televisions. (Munson and Smith, par. 4) The article points out that “TV budgeting devices are not widely available” but is gaining popularity. (Munson and Smith, par. 5)
Increasing family activities will directly lead to your child watching less TV. Inventing family rituals that are applicable to your home environment will increase family unity. Establishing a dinner time routine will have multiple payoffs...
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... Smarter TV Viewing” author Brain Stonehill claims “the quality of our viewing – and thus, in a media saturated world, the quality of our lives – depends on the care we take in making our choices of what to watch and what to turn off”. (Stonehill, par. 5)
TV is part of our culture so parents need to evaluate how their child interacts with today’s media technology. As an element in today’s youth, TV should be incorporated in a way that minimizes the negative effects on childhood. Marie Winn, author of “Television: The Plug-In-Drug”, notes how “parents have accepted a television-dominated family life” (Winn 437). This attitude is no longer acceptable in parenthood. Parents must dictate adolescents’ media consumption making sure it is not abused or overused. Simply staying involved with a child’s media exposure will help alleviate the destructive impact on childhood.
Television is a distraction for children and can hurt their cognitive abilities if they watch too much because it is non interactive. In the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity Helena Duch and colleagues mentioned that the American Academy of Pediatrics advises, “parents avoid exposing children 2 and under to screen media, a nationally representative survey found that 68% of children under the age of 2 use screen media in a typical day, and that average screen time was 2.05 hours per day” (Dutch et al 2). Children live in a world full of screens, ranging from iPhones, TVs, to tablets and computers. Drastic brain development occurs during the ages of 1-3 and exposing them to too much screen time of any kind can have negative effects on them (Hopkins 27). Putting them in front of a screen also steals away from times they could be talking, playing, and interacting with their surroundings. Pediatrician Dr. Michael Rich claims that shows d...
Moody, Kate. Growing up on Television: the TV Effect: a Report to Parents. New York, NY: Times, 1980. Print.
It may be hard to admit, but television has become an intricate part of our everyday lives. People children often find themselves sitting in front of the television screen for a longer period of time than before and this has evolved immensely over the past few years. In this article, “The Trouble with Television,” by the author Marie Winn, mentions that addiction of television is negative effects on children and families. It keeps the families from doing other things and it’s a hidden competitor for all other activities. Television takes place of play and on top of that kids who watch a lot of television grow uncivilized. Also, the author mentioned that televisions are less resourceful for children and have negative effects on children’s school achievement and on physical fitness. Although there are so many other types of addictions but the author Marie Winn’s points of argument of watching television is a serious addiction that our children and families have negative effects.
Author also point out television undermines the family. Most parents are now relying on outside sources such...
I never realized the impact television has had on my family until recently. My parents divorced eleven years ago, resulting in my sisters and I being raised in a single parent household. My mom decided to go back to school and get her degree; soon after she met the man she would marry and become our stepdad. Our family transformed from a nuclear family, to a single parent family to a mixed family. My mom had made a career for herself instead of being the stay at home mom like we saw in the traditional nuclear families. I was truly shocked to see how closely television shows resembles my own family. It is safe to say that television has progressed the culture of American families everywhere, even our
White, A. V. (2006). Television Harms Children. Opposing Viewpoints. Television. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. (Reprinted from Mothering, 2001, 70)
Television has become a big part in children’s day-to-day lives especially in the 20th century. Children in this century rely on television to keep them entertained and educated instead of entertaining and educating themselves by participating in activities, which will teach them a lot more in life then the actual television. There is no doubt that children are most easily influenced by television because of the different content that they watch as well as the amount of time consumed watching TV. The television does have an emotional and intellectual development on children but this all depends on the content that they’re watching and the way that they absorb the information that the show is trying to send out. Different programs will portray
Woodard, E.H. & Gridina, N. “Media in the Home 2000, The fifth annual survey of parents and children.” The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA. Feb 2001. 20 Mar 2008 .
There are many facts that show how children are affected by television. The most obvious is the effects that television has on the brain. 'Television interferes with the development of intelligence, thinking skill and imagination.';(LimiTv) A huge element of thinking is taking from what you already know and deciding how it applies in different situation. School makes you do this, but television does not. Michael and Sheila Cole, sociologist, say that 'Children socialized to learn from television had lower than normal expectations about the amount of mental effort required to learn from written texts, and tended to read less and perform relatively poorly in school.';(Development of Children 24) Which means that it takes very little effort to follow a television show and kids are raised on television believe that it takes less effort to learn from television rather than books because they have been 'spoon-fed'; information by television. 'Opportunities for a child's imagination to develop are also denied by habitual viewing.'; (Neural Activity and the Growth of the Brain) Children need some unstructured time to allow imagination skills to form by thinking about a book or story, a conversation, or an event.
How TV Affects your Child? Kids Health. October 2011. Web. The Web.
Parents need to know when their child is exposed to media parent involvement that includes positive guidance on appropriate use of all media that includes internet, music, television, and video games. All media has the possibility to develop positive and negative effects on children and adolescents. Depending on the child’s developmental stage determines if the effect will be
Children can be influenced and impacted in many ways whether it is from their parents, peers, and even strangers. One thing many people don’t realize is that many children, nowadays, are actually being influenced by the media, meaning they are being affected by different media sources, such as television and the internet. The question is whether the sources of media, television and the internet has a positive effect or a negative effect on children, and which source of media has a bigger effect.
In United States, “Children watch 4 hours of television every day, 28 hours a week and, sometimes, 10 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. Before their 18th birthday, children may view 25,000 hours of television” (Ni Chang 85). Nowadays, technology has been developed and used in many different ways. Many children spend large amount of time on IPad, smart phone, and computer. Clearly, television has played an important role in most of the younger age group’s life. As a parent, one of the biggest concerns about the influence that television has on the children is that they tend to become aggressive while they watch a lot of violent program. Communicating and engaging with one and other is limited because television has destroyed communication among family and removed children from the social interaction. Moreover, watching a lot of TV also contributes child obesity. Overall, television is harmful for children in their early development because it is not only going to delay their brain development, but also increase their aggressive behavior, and cause child obesity in a long term period.
Disadvantages for children to watch television would be they spend less time on physical activities and social relations with their friends. Children’s body are growing up by physical activities such as playing basketball, baseball or biking, however children who spend more time on watching television might have some difficulties on growing up. By having less time with their buddies, they can feel depressions and loneliness easily. They don’t feel comfortable with talking to their friends face to face or talking about their personal topics, because they get used to listen to the television and see the images on the tv screen. It might be difficult for them to initiate a conversation with actual people and sharing their real emotions and feeling with them.
To many children, TV can be appealing because they find the colorful cartoons interesting and instantly catches their attention. But, as entertaining and fun Television can be, spending too much time looking at your big fifty inch flat screen TV can eventually impact your life. It seems like if you just spend all your time sitting on the couch, you may find yourself preparing fast meals, such as a ham sandwich thrown with some potato chips on a plate or just driving to buying something from McDonald’s. But this can eventually affect your health. If we give Television too much attention it can also affect relationships with parents, siblings or a partner. It can slowly become an easy addiction to come home to, sit on the couch and spend the rest of the day watching all the shows we like. Lastly, too much Television can affect our mood which can lead to certain thinking and