Influence of Media on Children
For good or for bad the media has a profound influence on the minds of children. Parents have a responsibility to closely watch and discuss with their children the influences to which they are exposed.
The influences come from many sources like children’s books, comics, TV, movies, the power of advertising, and the internet.
Media tend to compartmentalize people and place them into categories of being dumb or smart, and good or bad. Young minds identify with these absolutes. It is up to parents to counteract these influences by speaking out, teaching that all people do not fit into such specific categories. That all individuals are different, each one having differing attributes.
Marketing methods reach out to young minds in a bid to influence children to persuade their parents to buy products the child has repeatedly seen on TV commercials. Even a three year old child can quickly pick up on the brand mane of the latest fast food chain exhorting ‘come in and buy one’
Children are influenced continually that ‘more and more, bigger and faster’ are all good values. Why should this be? Parents must counter such marketing influences by pointing out to their child of the many faulty statements made about such products being advertised. Teach them that what they read, see on billboards, and on the TV screen are often far removed from the realities of real life.
Question the growing child and ask if they have seen the results of commercials promoting alcohol in the form of the effects on the drinker the next day. Ask if they can associate the lovely girl advertising the latest fashions, hair styles and make up to attract the boys with unwanted pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease.
Studies in the USA have clearly shown that teenagers who are continually exposed to violence, sex, and crime through the media are much more likely to engage in this kind of behavior themselves.
In such portrayals the media seldom points out the consequences of such behavior, jail, broken lives, and unwanted pregnancies.
For parents it is vital that such media influences on children are monitored closely. The children should be taught from the start, that it is better for their development to learn which values are correct from their parents, and not from the often negative influences of the media.
Written by admin on April 16, 2011 under Media Influence.
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