Media Influence essays

Media Influence essays As technology advances and media choices increase, children develop unconstructive social, learning, and health habits that many parents are greatly unaware of. Parents dont realize that the amount of time children spend consuming the media is second most to anything else children do, besides sleep (Dunnewind, A1). Children today spend more than four hours a day either watching television, fiddling on the computer, or playing video games (Vanderkam, A1). It is estimated that by high school graduation, teenagers will have spent more time in front of the screen than in the classroom (). Research goes to show that todays media has played a significant role in shaping childrens lives, and parents definitely need to give more concern to this issue. The mass media has numerous ways in which it triggers childrens minds and habits. Parents used to only have to worry about the effects of television on their children. Now they have to worry about the advances in television along with DVD players, videos, Nintendo, playstation, computer games, and Internet (Dunnewind, A1). On average, the American child grows at home with two televisions, two VCRs, three tape players, two CD players, one video game system, and one computer (Dunnewind, A1). Television is the probably the strongest form of media. It contains advertisements, violence, sexuality, and biased or false statements that most children tend to believe (). About thirty-five percent of children between the ages of five and seven believe that television commercials always tell the truth (Liebert and Sprafklin, 170). The Internet is also a strong form of media that can have negative effects on children. If children are left unsupervised, they can be exposed to sexual or violent advertisements on the Internet, which can lead children to believe that sex and violence arent bad (). Video games also have a strong effect on children a...