Shortening Attention Span

Television has a widespread influence on everyone, especially children. Children are impacted so much by the things they have seen and watched on TV. They learn many things from TV, but their social skills and other learning abilities slow down. Watching TV numbs the mind of children and keeps them inactive from daily exercise. Furthermore, speech delays can occur in children who watch excessive amounts of television. Television programming such as MTV, Adult Swim, and Family Guy exposes and promotes negative

In Virginia Heffernan’s essay “The Attention-Span Myth,” she argues against the “ineffable quality” (115) associated with the attention span. At first she provides both sides of the attention corruption by technology debate, but then questions the definition of the attention span and its very existence. According to Heffernan, the attention span is an inaccurate tool for measurement, as can be seen by looking at the works of past authors who recognize the virtues of “distractibility” (114). While she addresses the value of a short attention span, Heffernan fails to provide direct evidence in support of her “phantom idea of an attention span” (115) theory. She gets lost in the world of “hyperactive” (114) genius and never quite gets around to thoroughly backing up her concluding argument.

In addition, over consumption affects children’s visual and auditory development. This imbalances the other five developments and will cause an overload of problems. In the Huffington Post, Rowan explains how because of violence children encounter in, not just television but also video games, will enhance increased breathing and heart rate. This indicates a variety of serious diseases and disorders, such as hypertension and ADHD. Because of the overuse of media, it has affected the child’s overall neurological developments and can cause long term effects in their fragile

The media is generally seen by people as a way of conveying the truth. If something is seen on TV, has been heard on the radio or something has been read in the newspapers then it is perceived as being the truth. Throughout history the media has been used as a tool to convey different messages to people. The issue of the behavior of children when exposed to violence on media has been an issue to be debated upon and studied for a very long time. There are many devices that children have access to of late which include video games, iPods, iPads, DVDs, computers and so on. Children are often said to be impressionable, this means that they do not see the world in the same way as adults do. Children tend to see things the way they are. They take things literally as they do not posses the sensibilities that are sophisticated to make a distinction between reality and fiction (Limit TV, 2010).

The negative effects of television are huge. To minimize the potential negative effects of television, it's important to understand what the impact of television can be on children.

Technology throughout the past 30-40 years has become more advanced and accessible than ever. The television specifically has developed extremely since its beginning. What started off as a single camera caption, has developed into a full fledge worldwide availability. Within the United States, the TV is a normal everyday object common in households, hotels, schools, and even restaurants. There are approximately 118.4 million household in the United States that own a television set ( The Number of TV Households in the United States from season 2000-2001 to season 2016-2017 (in millions)).However, the increased amount of time spent watching TV has had a tremendous impact on people, especially kids. The differences in generations throughout the development of the TV has led to many questions, all revolving around whether or not the televisions has had a good or negative impact pertaining to children. Time spent watching television affects the brain, ability to learn, and skill levels in different areas (source. In the book “Last Child in The Woods,” Richard Louv discusses how children in the 1940’s would watch out the window at the scenery and have conversations, while children now sit and watch a movie on a flip-down video screen without knowledge to the outside world (Louv 16-17).

School performance also can be drastically affected if children are exposed to too much screen time. They will not make time to do their homework, which will ultimately have a negative impact on their grades.  Younger people are affected much more easily by what they see or hear on television or the computer. These things will have a bigger impact and influence on them than they would on someone older who knows better and knows what is right and wrong. There are plenty of commercials and shows on television that can be a bad influence on kids. Everything from violence and crime to drugs and sexual content can be found on both the computer and television. Even though parents try their best to teach their children right from wrong, if they see these things enough on a regular basis, it will have some kind of negative effect on them. When children see these bad things happening on television, and they see that nothing is being done to stop them, they automatically assume that it is all acceptable for them to do as well. This, again, can begin to affect other aspects of their lives negatively such as school and their behavior.

     What impact does sex, violence, drugs, etc. in the media have on children? What can we do about it? How do we balance the tension between freedom of expression and the need to protect children? When you talk about the media and whether or not it is harmful on children, you must examine the whole industry and all aspects of its effects on children. It is that the media as a whole is not as harmful to children as some intense other can, but over exposure to certain aspects of certain types of media can be harmful. To say that all media can be harmful to children is a fallacy that must be avoided when examining this topic. Most people when analyzing this issue tend to focus on drugs, sex, and violence in terms of

Children from two years old to the age of ten years old can be effected in a negative way. Sometimes parents give their children a tablet or their cell phone to entertain them while they try and get something important done. Sometimes they are out in public and their child is being too loud so they pull out the phone and let them watch T.V. on it so they can become quiet. The American Academy of Pediatrics explains, “Screens are distractions, not tools to soothe children. Television is not a “babysitter,” so parents should enforce rules about media use” (Roman). From the start of a child 's life parents should be careful about letting kids have the ability to watch too much tv or spend too much time staring at any type of technology. Parents tend to use their technology to keep

In one year, a child tends to spend more time watching TV than the amount of time spent in the classroom. Beginning in 1927, the first television consisted of nothing more than a very small box that consumed a monstrous amount of energy. As years passed, World War II served as the spark in the age of the TV. Many people in the United States of America became distraught during the war. What’s more settling than buying something to make oneself feel better? As TV’s flew off the shelf, little did America know of the potential harmful effects on education. The TV has been proven to negatively affect our children’s brains. The setbacks of TV far outweigh the The Small Fry Club, Tillstrom 's Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, and Robert E. "Buffalo Bob" Smith 's Howdy Doody Time provided some of the first children’s programs aired. Cartoons became a popular Saturday morning event in the early 1960’s. This ritual benefited both the parents and the child. The kids enjoyed having such consistent entertainment and the parents managed to have some free time to themselves. However, as time passed by, the use of television did not solely rely on entertainment, but also to distract children.

Media has the ability to impact our everyday lives if you allow them to. It can determine how people perceive social norms, morals and values. Media can influence society far more reaching since they are different methods such as television, radio, movies, music, newspaper and many more. Moreover, media demonstrates its influence over the social values and norms through the use of violence, establishing unrealistic body imagery as well as the ability to dictate social needs through advertisements and commercials. Violence in media can affect children of all ages but in different ways. Each group may react differently to violence portrayed in the media depending on how much television they watch, as well as parental input and the media supervision by the parents. As an infant, they would pay attention to television set for short periods of time, if the adult physically directs them toward it. There has been no evidence that indicates media effects on infants, however they show signs of tiredness. Josephson (1978) said that “babies who watched

The ever changing society modern society, children tend to rediscover themselves before they attain the majority age. It has been argued that the increasing exposure of children to the media including the internet, music, radio, video games, and television impacts on their psychological development. This make children o

With the advancement in technology it has become common for infants, toddlers, and young children to be exposed to electronics such as televisions, computers, and videogames for hours at a time. Environmental factors affect children in significant ways. The effects the media and screen time children are revealed to influence their physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development. Television and media can both hinder and encouraging their growth. It is important for guardians, caregivers, teachers, whomever has a child they look after or care for, to make accommodations to construct the best possible environment for children to flourish in. At such a young age, these young humans are like sponges, they absorb much of what surrounds them. Because of this, the importance of trying to make it possible that they are mainly witnessing things helpful to the development of the child and thereby, benefiting them later in life.

Even at the most tender of ages, children are already active in the use of the media. The television is the main media that the children are exposed to at this early age. It may seem that the children do not understand anything in the televisions and could lead to some disputing the idea of its involvement in

This shows that children spend more time involved in the media than they do with their parents and education. This means that the media is imposing a negative impact on children by eliminating important factors in a childs growth such as learning and spending time with family.