There is no doubt that the media has an effect on our lives. Whether it is the shows we watch on the television or the cell phones we use each and every day, the media has consumed us as a whole and it is not going away any time soon because it is now our way of life.
We live in a society which praises individuality and freedom, and therefore, to most people it is a scary thought that an outside source, such as the media, has such a large impact on our everyday lives. People stare away from the fact that negativity comes from the media, but when the children are involved, matters get a bit personal. “Our kids are like sponges, and we really need to remember they learn from their environment,” said Cary P. Gross, professor at Yale School of Medicine. It is common sense that children are very impressionable, and that the people they meet or the things they see can have a huge impact on them. And while kids are not only learning a life’s lesson from the media, they are also picking character traits and behaviors. In the 173 studies that were done over a 30 year period by researchers from the National Institutes of Health and Yale University, it found strong connections between media exposure and problems of childhood obesity and tobacco use, nearly as strong was the link to early sexual behavior (Dunham).
But the media is not solely to blame for the exposure to inappropriate sights in the media; it is also the lack of an enforcer, such as a guardian, present. Today, sadly, many children often don’t have parents that reside at home. Usually both parents work long hours or only one guardian is present, and the children have nothing else but the media and the influences brought upon by their friends. The average child spends nearly 45 hours a week with television, movies, magazines, music, the Internet, cell phones and video games and by comparison, children spend 17 hours a week with their family on average and 30 hours a week in school (Akre). Does the increasing amount of vulgar behavior in the media have an effect on children? Yes, in fact, children are basically the victims of the media. The violence, drugs, profanity, and sex laid out by the media greatly effect a child’s development. Spending a lot of time watching television, playing video games and surfing the Web makes children prone to a range of health problem including obesity and smoking (St. George). Children, nowadays, know about things that should have been kept in the dark until in their more mature years and the media is to blame for this.
The effects of media in our modern society on our children are something that we will not be truthfully known exactly, but it is clear that there is negativity present. No other media absorbs ones life in such a passive, complacent way as television and the Internet do to millions of children everywhere. I believe that it is apparent to everyone that the media does have a large impact on our lives. We determine our identity in relation to the media – our favorite television show, favorite movie, favorite band, favorite book; all are determined by the media to some extent. We need to learn to discern the effects of media on our lives and learn to control and to resist its temptations. Unfortunately, most of us rely too deeply on the media, even if we want to or not.