Media's_Negative_Impact_on_Children_and_Adolescents

Media’s Negative Impact on Children and Adolescents Sarah Foyer ENG/102 January 17, 2010 Jeanne Williams Media’s Negative Impact on Children and Adolescents Today’s media is unlike any other before; it just keeps growing better and better. There is so much information and so many different ways to acquire the information on anything that one would want to know. There is television, newspapers, magazines, internet, and many more. The only question that draws to my mind is; with everything that is available is it hurting our children and adolescents' Today’s media may not be the only reason for today’s children acting more violent, their obsession with sex and a cause of insecurity, but it is an immense cause. The media today is extremely essential in society no doubt. It provides us information on any subject or matter. We receive information on subjects like the weather, local, and worldwide news, to entertainment. With the positives of the media outweighing the negative aspects people may think that the media is not hurting today’s children and adolescents, but the truth in many people’s opinion is that the negative can be very detrimental. To see how detrimental the media truly can be on children, one needs to examine just how much children and adolescents are exposed to it. Today’s children ranging from infants to 17 become exposed to an enormous amount of media and in most opinions much more than ever before. In today’s society, “the average American child spends three to five hours a day watching television” (Adams, 2008 para.2). If one really stops to think about that statistic, it seems somewhat absurd. In most cases children are in school anywhere from four to eight hours a day by the time that they get to and from and nowadays “the average youth will spend 900 hours a year in school and 1,500 hours of watching TV” (Adams, 2008 para.5). This statistic is proving how much children and adolescents are exposed to television, but it does not show how much they are being exposed to the negative aspects of it. One statistic suggests that the average child “before the age of 18” “will witness over 200,000 acts of violence including 16,000 murders” (Ehlers, 2009, para.4). Agreed that there are many positive factors to the media, which is a given, but as seen through the previous paragraph there are also negative factors as well. The main factor and downside to the media would be the amount of violence that is exposed to the children and adolescents. Violence is everywhere in the media, starting with the news. “Local news is often found to overemphasize brutal crime and to rely heavily on sensational presentations of violence” (Walma van der Molen, J. H., 2004, para.1). In most cases the news is not intended for children however, children rely heavily on television for their information (Walma van der Molen, J. H., 2004). If parents really stop to think about, it many children are watching more news and current events than they are aware of, in fact, “most children in the highest grades of elementary school watch the news at least several times a week and even many 3-to-8-year-olds regularly watch television news” (Walma van der Molen, J. H., 2004, para.2). News is one way that media violence is produced to children and adolescents of today but is not the only outlet. Common knowledge of today’s media one knows that most all television shows, movies, and video games have some sort of violent behavior in them. Anyone who has a young child or even a niece or nephew knows that even SpongeBob Square pants has gross violence and sexual references. According to a new study, “children’s viewing of violent TV shows, their identification with aggressive same-sex TV characters, and their perceptions that TV violence is realistic are all linked to later aggression as young adults, for both males and females” (Huesmann, 2003, para.1). After becoming aware of all the violence that really is portrayed in the media, one would likely ask themselves, what kind of damage is this really doing to today’s children who will one day become adults' The facts are quite startling. In one study the results showed that men who were introduced and watched shows at a young age with high crime and violence are “more likely to have pushed, grabbed or shoved their spouses” and “to have been convicted of a crime” (Huesmann, 2003, para.3). In the same study, women who have been exposed to violent television programs at a young age “reported having punched, beaten or choked another adult at over four times the rate of other women” (Huesmann, 2003, para.4). Another startling fact is that if parents were to help their children make better decisions regarding what is inappropriate television there would be a lot less crimes in America (Ehlers, 2009). In fact, violent media and entertainment is linked to half of the crime in America (Ehlers, 2009). One more interesting and disturbing fact is that there would be “ten thousand fewer homicides each year in the U.S., 70,000 fewer rapes, and 70,000 fewer injurious assaults” (Ehlers, 2009, para.1). After seeing statistics and facts like these, there is no denying that violent media can be detrimental to today’s children and adolescents. The Amount Of Violence That Is Really In The Media [pic] Violence is not the only factor in the media that presents a problem. The media is known to cause low self-esteem and body issues for adolescents. With a world already full of hatred toward other races and social statuses, this is just one more element that does not need to be glorified in the media. Take young women, for example, media such as magazines, movies, and television programs, along with commercials are glorifying that the acceptable body image for women is to be super thin (National Institute on Media and the Family, 2009). Likewise, the stereotypical image for a young man is to be “trim, but muscular” (National Institute on Media and the Family, 2009, para.3). Another thing that goes with glorifying the way a person looks is sex. Sex content is an evident and clear problem in today’s media. Every time one turns on the television or opens a magazine there is a half-naked girl or boy. What Parents Really Think About Sex and the Media [pic] Young people and even adults are conditioned to think that we are not good enough or need to look like what we see on television or in magazines. This does not only affect how we think of ourselves but conditions us and especially impressionable young minds to have an unnatural obsession with perfection that in turn can cause many problems. “Teenage girls who viewed commercials depicting women who modeled the unrealistically thin-ideal type of beauty cause adolescent girls to feel less confident, more angry and more dissatisfied with their weight and appearance” (National Institute on Media and the Family, 2009, para.8). One can only lead to believe that adolescent girls and for that matter, adolescent boys are going to be more prone to have eating disorders and steroid use to achieve the “perfect” body. Another concerning issue of the media is the effect on gender identity. With children and adolescents watching so much television every day, the presence of gender roles is bound to get misconstrued. In one study, children “perceived most cartoon characters in stereotypical ways: boys were violent and active and girls were domestic, interested in boys, and concerned with appearance” (National Institute on Media and the Family, 2009, para.12). In one other study that tested three weeks of toy commercials discovered that “50% of the commercials aimed at girls spoke about physical attractiveness” and “boys acted aggressively in 50% of the commercials” (National Institute on Media and the Family, 2009, para.13 ). The media emphasizes on the “typical” roles that have been portrayed forever, in which the woman should be concerned with her appearance, at home, taking care of the children, and not working and the man is portrayed as the aggressive working man. There is no wonder why children and adolescents obtain an image of what the correct woman and man should be doing. This type of media does not show the children how to think out of the box and decide for themselves how they will live their lives and what career to pursue. The last negative aspect discussed concerning the media is the use of stereotyping. Media influences stereotyping among children and adolescents in which they think that if they do not have everything then they have nothing and therefore are nothing. Take the shows Gossip Girl and 90210, for example. These two shows glorify the life of the rich and famous. In both shows, they depict the lives of young men and women who have everything and do everything. Not only are they all fabulous, but they all have the “perfect” bodies and attitudes that are belittling to others. As evidentially depicted in commercials and magazine ads, the media influences and convinces children they need certain to have certain clothes and toys to be cool or popular. “Every year children influence their parents spending by convincing them to buy things that the media has portrayed as “cool”” (Staff, n.d., para.5). Another aspect that is evident in today’s media is the stereotypes of people and races. The media depicts the perfect race as the white male or female. All of the negative that is presented in the media today and the evidence that it is harmful to children and adolescents, there are still many who feel that the media plays no part in a child’s behavior or self-esteem. Many counter arguments that, yes, the media has its negative sides but there is still no harm in it and, in fact, does more good than harm. It is true that children do acquire good information and skills from certain television shows. Many shows are educational and teach children to count and their ABC’s. “A growing body of research shows that, if parents select programming wisely, set time limits and watch their kids as much as possible, children are likely to benefit rather than suffer any negative consequences” (Gillham & Kuchment, 2008, para.2). The common opinion is that children and adolescents are still going to witness violence one way or the other and they are going to have peer pressure and body issues anyway. Even with these counterarguments, it is hard to see how people are still not going to agree that media can and does have a severe impact on today’s children and adolescents. There are simply too many cold facts that are ranking against them. If people would look around and notice how much the world has changed since media became so mainstream, they would have to agree that media has many negative effects on today’s children and adolescents. As we can see there is a valid point to the fact, which today’s media is harming our children and adolescents. There is far too much access and glorification to violence, gender roles, and glorifying what the “perfect” body or look should be. Parents need to set limits and access to what their children are accessing and only allow most of the access for studies. This will help the children to have a more productive fruitful life. If one would stop and think about, it today’s media may not be the only reason for today’s children acting more violent, their obsession with sex and feeling unsure of themselves, but it is an immense cause. References Adams, D. (2008, Spring). Endangered minds in video reality: some effects of television and electronic media on children.. LILIPOH, 13(51), p. 38(2). Ehlers, T. (2009). Assessing the negative effects of violent media on children. Retrieved from http://www.helium.com/items/433329-assessing-the-negative-effects-of-violent-media- on-children Gillham, C., & Kuchment, A. (2008, February). Kids: To TV Or Not TV. Newsweek,             151.07(), 60. Huesmann, L. R. (2003). Media Information. American Psychological Association. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/releases/media_violence.html  Kaiser Family Foundation. (2006). Parental Concerns about Impact of Sexual Content on TV on Children's Behavior. Retrieved from http://facts.kff.org/chart.aspx'ch=460 National Institute on Media and the Family. (2009). Media's Effect On Girls: Body Image And Gender Identity. Retrieved from http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_mediaeffect.shtml Staff, T. (n.d.). How The Media Influences Children. Retrieved from http://www.thecutekid.com/parenting/children-media-influence.php Walma van der Molen, J. H. (2004, June). Violence and suffering in television news:             toward a broader conception of harmful television content for children..                 Pediatrics, 113.6(5), 1771.  (1999). Graph of Violence on TV. Retrieved from http://www.tvsmarter.com/documents/aggression.html