The Impact of Media on Children Essay

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

“Television has changed the American child from an irresistable force to an immovable object.” (Peter). There was a time when all children wanted to do was to run, play, explore, and be adventurous. As time evolved, children have found more interest in television. Statistics show that a child spends 900 hours per year in school,and they spend 1,200 hours per year watching television. When asked to choose between watching T.V. and spending time with their families fifty-four percent of four to six year olds voted they would prefer to watch television. Television has changed the mindset of children over the years it has been proven that the more programs they watch, the more harmful it is to their brain development. T.V.

In the article “TV’s Negative Influence on Kids Reaffirmed” by Jeffrey M. McCall, he addresses the issue of how TV has a negative influence on children. McCall states that young children and toddler’s cognitive ability do not develop as well when they have a television in the background while they are playing and interacting. McCall also argues that TV has a very influential role in the teenage pregnancy rate and how early teens become sexually active. To further prove his point, McCall proclaims that children and teens that are exposed to large amounts of television and video games become socially awkward and have issues interacting in society. McCall also says that the networks are rating their own programs carelessly, which is leading to shows that should be restricted by a V-chip being watched by children, rendering the restricting system null and void.

Television can affect learning and school performance if it exceeds the time kids need for their crucial for healthy physical and mental development. Most of children's free time, especially during the early development years, should be spent in activities such as playing, reading, exploring nature, learning about music or participating in sports. Research has shown that children's exposure to television during the preschool years is predictive of academic outcomes during adolescence. The most notable lesson about this

Within our society today, media plays a huge role in everyone’s life - an important role. Media offers entertainment, news, information, and education; however, with these benefits come negatives as well. For example, foul language, drug abuse, and sexual content may be presented to an unsuitable audience, specifically children. It’s easy to see sexual content on tv, hear foul language in songs on the radio, or even hear about the abuse of drugs and alcohol. Children are especially good at mimicking what they see and are easily influenced. So, with all this content being shown openly with no censorship, children think this is a social norm, as well as spending long periods of time watching TV, playing video games, and using the internet. Modern technology has transformed the way children learn and interact within their environment, it is having a negative effect on them in this younger generation with all the easy access to all genera’s of media material for long periods of time.

In the article “TV’s Negative Influence on Kids Reaffirmed” by Jeffrey M. McCall, he addresses the issue of how TV has a negative influence on children. McCall states that young children and toddler’s cognitive ability does not develop as well when they have television in the background while they are playing. McCall also argues that TV has a very influential role in the teen pregnancy rate and how early teens become sexually active. To further prove his point, McCall proclaims that children and teens that are exposed to too much Television and video games become socially awkward and have trouble interacting in society. McCall also says that the networks are rating their own programs carelessly which is leading to shows that should be blocked

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.

Mass media is part of the average persons everyday life, from morning to night; modern society absorbs and consumes it constantly. Adults are aware of it and see the media, as advertisements on television, the latest blockbuster at the theaters or the trendy new clothing. Children are not free from it either; they to are exposed to the medias imagery and ideals maybe more than adults are. Parents may not pay close attention to the media their children are exposed to; adults may think they are just harmless children’s toys or games. From the time they wake up and they pour themselves a bowl of brand name cereal, to the time they are put in bed with their stuff animal or toy, they are in the presence of some sort of media and its imagery.

Many children are influenced by what they see on television. Some programs have a positive and negative affect on how children behave.(AACAP.org) Using Cultivation Theory, I will validate that the amount of television being watched and the variety of talk shows does impact a child’s health, behavior and family life. After reviewing the outcomes, it is obvious that my hypothesis and Gerbner’s Cultivation Theory which essentially clarifies that the heavy television viewers develop a common socially conservative outlook through constant exposure to the same images and labels.(p. 353) According to the 2011 Active Healthy Kids Report Card on Physical Activity, television is one of the most prevalent media influences in kids’ lives. Children are spending too much time watching television and this is stopping them from doing activities crucial to healthy mental and physical development. Studies has shown that young children who watch too much television have delayed cognitive and emotional development. In older children excessive screen time has been proven to lead to behavioral difficulties, reduced achievement at school, attention problems, sedentary behaviors and an increased risk of obesity.(MediaSmarts)

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.

Television, music, video games, and other form of media are all things that are fun and sometimes educational for kids, but can be a bad influence on children, depending on the content. These all should be used to teach children how to solve problems and expand their mind, rather than teaching them to kill people and portraying someone negatively. The images and stories shown to children and teenagers make it difficult

Impact on cognitive development: Media promotes depression, anxiety and violent behavior in children. This is because many acts of violence are depicted in prime time shows and in video games. “High levels of television viewing are causally related to aggressive behavior and the acceptance of aggressive attitudes” (as cited in Strasburger & Donnerstein, 1999, p. 132). Furthermore, media affects children’s ability to learn. This is because they get used to learning through “song and dance” on edutainment TV shows, and when such excitement is absent at school, they feel it is boring and tend to lose interest in academics (Clean Cut Media, 2010). More and more children are being diagnosed with attention disorders because they tend to multi-task while using media, by listening to music, chatting online, watching TV etc., at the same time (Clean Cut Media, 2010). An advantage of the internet is that it promotes learning through interactive media and interesting content, but utilizing it depends on the choice of the children.

The media can manipulate the youth’s ideas and thoughts and make them conform to the thoughts and ideas to those of the advertisers. Assuming that the media does not care for the interest of the youth ,and children are susceptible to be manipulated because they have not fully formulated their own opinions and ideas on certain subjects, therefore their premeditated conceptions are able to be changed easily because they can be influenced.Thus, the media can negatively affect the youth and their viewpoints on controversial issues, their minds are still young and forming, so they will believe whatever people say without doing further research for themselves to know it is factual or not.

"Impact of media use on children and youth” explores the good and bad effects that media can have on a young child’s development both mentally and physically. In the beginning of the article, they provided examples of how watching television can expose young children to violence, sexuality, and offensive language. The author made an interesting point that connected an increase in violent behaviors with children who watch violent

There is no doubt that when it comes to American youth television is one of the biggest influences by far. Many parents would love to say that their child does not watch that much TV but in reality they are spending a lot of time watching television or using media in some way. “The study by the Kaiser Family foundation shows that children ages 2-8 spend an average of 5 ½ hours a day “consuming media” kids 8 and older spend even more time in front of the tube nearly 6 ¾ hours a day” (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005 ). Astonishingly, more time is being spent with media then doing homework, studying or even spending time with family. A child’s retention of what