2008 Woodie Awards
The media plays a hefty role in childrens development
Children are growing up with movies and music videos playing the role as parent
Stephanie McKiniey
Issue date: 10/21/05 Section: Opinion
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It's practically common knowledge that media generally plays a hefty role in influencing Americans, and occasionally the rest of the world as well.
Everyone also sees that teens and young children are hit hardest by media messages. And when young people try to imitate what they see on TV, it is usually not in their best interest.
One thing young adults in college have in common is always having wished they were older when growing up. How we all acted out in an attempt to appear more mature varies from person to person, and likely from country to country.
Yet, the way young boys and girls are venturing to seem more "mature" these days has become increasingly brazen and explicit in the way they dress, speak and interact within society.
Most specifically, thanks to television showcasing more nudity, violence and undisputed stereotypes, kids are only imitating the dark side of society: an adults' inner- most desires and fears.
I view this dilemma as being a very simple, but harmful, cycle of behavior.
For example, say a 14-year-old girl sits at home one summer watching MTV, VH1 and Entertainment Tonight. She is likely to receive hundreds of messages about beauty, pop culture and self-indulgence, through the programming and advertisements on these stations.
If she has a TV in her room, then she is also likely to catch at least one spicy rerun of Nip/Tuck on a late Tuesday night. After all that, she won't realize it, but her young mind is being corrupted by adult images and concepts. End result? She opts to show more skin when deciding what to wear and takes the extra time to apply more makeup and/or hair products.
A young girl's mind is manipulated into thinking that all attention is good attention, and she probably couldn't care less about presenting herself as a "lady." So our young girls are going out dressed in overtly sexual ensembles, concerned only with catching the eye of the opposite sex.
Now, let's take things back to that same summer and imagine a young boy watching nothing but music videos and playing video games ; he's going to have a different attitude about girls and women.
Everyone also sees that teens and young children are hit hardest by media messages. And when young people try to imitate what they see on TV, it is usually not in their best interest.
One thing young adults in college have in common is always having wished they were older when growing up. How we all acted out in an attempt to appear more mature varies from person to person, and likely from country to country.
Yet, the way young boys and girls are venturing to seem more "mature" these days has become increasingly brazen and explicit in the way they dress, speak and interact within society.
Most specifically, thanks to television showcasing more nudity, violence and undisputed stereotypes, kids are only imitating the dark side of society: an adults' inner- most desires and fears.
I view this dilemma as being a very simple, but harmful, cycle of behavior.
For example, say a 14-year-old girl sits at home one summer watching MTV, VH1 and Entertainment Tonight. She is likely to receive hundreds of messages about beauty, pop culture and self-indulgence, through the programming and advertisements on these stations.
If she has a TV in her room, then she is also likely to catch at least one spicy rerun of Nip/Tuck on a late Tuesday night. After all that, she won't realize it, but her young mind is being corrupted by adult images and concepts. End result? She opts to show more skin when deciding what to wear and takes the extra time to apply more makeup and/or hair products.
A young girl's mind is manipulated into thinking that all attention is good attention, and she probably couldn't care less about presenting herself as a "lady." So our young girls are going out dressed in overtly sexual ensembles, concerned only with catching the eye of the opposite sex.
Now, let's take things back to that same summer and imagine a young boy watching nothing but music videos and playing video games ; he's going to have a different attitude about girls and women.