The Impact Of Media On Child Development

The article, Shame, Pride and Eating Disorders by Kenneth Goss and Steven Allan, covers three main topics including the shame-pride cycle, factors that result in eating disorders and ways to identify or help persons with an eating disorder. Both shame and pride are believed to be large factors in the development of mental illnesses, such as anorexia, bulimia, etc. Kenneth and Steven put together multiple research examples to prove the topics covered within this article. They begin by stating that women, in particular, with these eating disorders have been prone to have more amounts of shame

Eating disorders are any mental illnesses characterized by abnormal or disturbed eating habits. Common eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. People with anorexia view themselves as overweight, even when they are dangerously underweight. Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental disorder. Bulimia nervosa involves frequent episodes of eating large amounts of food followed by guilt for overeating which leads to induced vomiting, excessive use of laxatives or diuretics, fasting, excessive exercise, or a combination of these behaviors. Unlike anorexia, people with bulimia nervosa usually maintain a relatively normal, healthy weight. Individuals with binge eating disorder can lose control over their eating habits, and thus, they are often overweight or obese. Binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder in the U.S (NIMH). 95% of people with eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25 (11 facts about body image). During these ages, young women are very impressionable, so whatever they see on television and any other form of media can significantly affect their judgment, and a girl’s parents can also affect body

Progressions happened between the 1980s and 1990s in the field of computer technology. With this increase, more computer access would be able to children in school and home. With an easier access to media for children increased the media influence. During this same progression period, media went under a huge transformation. This transformation resulted in the increase of sexual innuendo and themes and violent behavior. This revolution of media was apparent in movies, music lyrics, video games, cartoons, magazines and television. Renee Hobbs Author of “Media Literacy in the Classroom." Stated

Negative thoughts about one’s body can be found in girls as early as six years old. Even girls at this young of an age have reportedly wanted to look “sexy.” For many adolescent girls, they have always been exposed to the media. It is a part of their lifestyle. Ultimately, what they see through the media, is what they believe to be true. When they see the media promoting the perfect body, they truly believe that is how their body is supposed to look. Since young people spend more time on social media, they are more inclined to seeing images of the ideal body every single day. Through social media, teen girls get attention, or praised on their appearances through likes and comments. “27 percent feel stressed out about how they look when they post pictures. 22 percent feel badly about themselves when nobody comments on or “likes” the photos they post” (Naylor). The worst possible outcome due to body image dissatisfaction in adolescent girls is for one to develop an eating disorder. Anorexia is an eating disorder in which one will starve themselves in order to lose weight, or not gain any. Bulimia, is an eating disorder where one will binge eat, and then purge everything they have ate. One more eating disorder that many people don’t recognize as one, because honestly it doesn’t make sense is binge eating in which one will eat large amounts of food and won’t be able to stop themselves. All of which can be very life threatening. “In the United States, the discrepancy between the extraordinarily thin body type promoted in the media and the reality of average women's bodies has been implicated in the steady rise of eating disorders, especially among adolescents. Experts believe that today, more than ten million women and girls suffer from anorexia, bulimia, or related illnesses, with the onset of such problems occurring in patients of younger and younger ages” (Balarro and Wagner). Since the body mass

Negative factors within the family such as neglect and sexual abuse, possibly both inherited and environmental, play a major role in triggering and perpetuating eating disorders among young girls. (http://noah.cuny.edu/wellconn/eatdisorders.html) Sexual harassment and abuse are just two of the ways in which young girls learn to feel shame, embarrassment, rejection, and hatred toward their developing bodies. Women's Studies of Toronto suggest "that sexual harassment is a tool of oppression that can alienate girls from their developing bodies and give them a distorted sense of self". (Berg, 40) Many girls are afraid to walk down the halls or change in a locker room for fear of being called a "carpenter's dream" or "fat bitch". They feel they are being

The internet broadcasts awful images and videos about wars, killing, murder, and many more violence related crimes. People who spend all their time surfing the net are more prone to lose touch with reality. Ellison talks about cartoon violence over the internet in particular. Furthermore, Ellison also talks about this cartoon series called “Happy Tree Friends” where “in every episode, the cute creatures are introduced, after which something awful happens to them, either by gruesome accident, or at the paws of the psychopathic bear”(Ellison, 2005). But actually, “the net can play a productive role in shaping young lives” (Arun Rajagopal, 2008). The internet can provide entertainment for children. In addition, it can also be very useful for children educational-wise as it provides a lot of information about many things; thus, it cannot totally pose a real threat for violence.

How can we tell our children that it’s what on the inside that counts, when the media continuously contradicts this message? The images used in fashion magazines typically portray women in an unrealistic thin ideal and causes women to experience lower self-esteem and internalized body dissatisfaction and the desire to have the perfect body is so strong that they are willing to trade their health in exchange

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.

Socialization was one of the broadest topics covered in class this semester. From the foundation of personality to the effect of media, socialization plays a pivotal role in what has ultimately allowed people thrive on this planet. Today, the landscape of communication is changing with the popularity of email, texting, and webcams; with advancing technology there is one group that is becoming more and more isolated, senior citizens. The isolation may come as a surprise but according to the U.S. Census 28% of people 65 and older lived alone in 2010 (AARP) . There are many risks that isolation causes for everyone but it is even more detrimental to the elderly. Major risks from isolation are an increased risk of mortality adults aged 52 older along having a large impact in high blood pressure (social). This is due to the crippling effects that isolation can have on a person’s mental and physical health. There are several academic works that support these claims because of the overall risks that isolation poses on everyone’s health. While isolation may look troubling, there are several steps in place to combat isolation in senior citizens. From senior groups to advancing technology there are multiple ways that seniors can fight of loneness and isolation. Some examples would be the development of senior friendly technology with programs like Skype that allow for face to face interactions. Isolation in the elderly is a problem in today 's society due to the debilitating problems

Ultimately, though, these behaviors will damage a person’s physical and emotional health, self- esteem and sense of competence and control (Factors That May Contribute to Eating Disorders 1). A Glamour magazine survey showed that sixty-one percent of respondents felt ashamed of their hips, sixty-four percent felt embarrassed by their stomachs, while seventy-two percent were ashamed of their thighs (Media Influence 1). A recent study in the United States showed that in reality only twenty-five percent of women are overweight, but seventy-five percent of the women in the United States consider themselves overweight when they are not. Four out of five women that live in the United States feel unhappy with their appearance (Media Influence 1). Adolescent girls have taken the fear of being overweight to the extreme, in which they are more terrified of gaining weight then losing their parents or even being diagnosed with cancer. Roughly one have of the girls in the fourth grade are on diets, and more than half of nine and ten year old girls admitted that they felt better about themselves when dieting (Media Influence 1). Children are taught early-on by society that what they should look like and even dress like matters. “It is reasonable to say that exposure could be a factor in the development of eating disorders,” Palmer continued. “But has a causal link been established? No (Pearson, Catherine 2).” Yes magazines are made for the people to look

Forum presses for effective policies and practice at local and national level – with the aim of

This paper intends to bring awareness to the harmful effects of the media on young children. Through this paper, I will investigate the claim that television promotes observational learning. I will describe the obscenities the media exposes to children. With that, I will explain how the media causes aggression in consumers, especially those of youth. This paper will also expound on the powerful effect modeling has on behavior. I will provide extensive examples of the impact of the media using multiple sources.

The media can be a powerful tool to get a message across. The media have been around for a while now, and in some cases it can be a useful tool to catch up with current events. In other cases it can be a total misrepresentation of the truth when it comes to controversial topics. The media use some controversial topics in order to get more and more people watch, read, and listen to their source. An example of a controversial topic, used by the media was the connection of the MMR vaccine with autism symptoms. Many media sources claim that the vaccine triggers the symptoms of autism. One of the main people causing the scare was Andrew Wakefield, a scientist who’s flawed study caused a public scare. Many people only believed his study because it was covered extensively by the media. The constant struggle of separating the real from the fake in the media often leads to citizens making misinformed decisions.

Cartoons are embedded in American culture. Once animation migrated from the silver screen to the television in 1950s, its popularity grew into a bastion of children’s entertainment (Booker, 2006). Today, over fifty years since its TV debut, animated content is a premiere form of media, consumed by children of all ages. But what has been the result of this consumption?

Mental health problems have been affecting nearly every society in some way, shape, or form for as long as we can remember. According to the World Health Organization, approximately one million people die from suicide every year (Schaefer, 2018, p. 6). Durkheim also noted that the suicide rate in a society reflects how well the people were integrated in the society (Schaefer, 2018, p. 7). The problem that I want to focus on revolves around how marketing to children teaches them values, like material objects and money, that will eventually lead to higher rates of anxiety and depression at an earlier age. It is known that the mass media strongly influences kids ages 12 to 17, but the age at which kids gain access to technology is starting to decline (Schaefer, 2018, p. 90). Gradually, we can see how the media has an overwhelming effect on the youth from the way children think about their future and their career path to the way that they play. This is directly observed in a nationwide survey of incoming college freshmen which shows that values having to do with money and power rose from 42 percent in 1966 to 82 percent in 2015 (Schaefer, 2018, p. 63). If corporations constantly promote the idea that having more things will lead to happiness, then when kids can’t have those things they start to believe that they can’t be happy without them.