New York - Research has shown the media has a negative impact on the lives and psyche of the younger generation today. Parents have voiced their outcries against what they see happening to their little ones.
Obesity, drugs, teen pregnancy and sex, violence in school, grades dropping, all of these can be sourced back to Mass Media. What children see they will try to reenact even if it is subconsciously.
In a new study bythe US National Institutes of Health, Yale University and the California Pacific Medical Centre, researchers attempted to understand the influence of mass media on children.
The researchers analyzed 173 studies from as far back as 1980 about the effects of media consumption on children. 80 percent of the studies agreed that heavy media exposure increases the risk of obesity, smoking, sex, drug and alcohol use, attention problems and poor grades.
“Our kids are sponges, and we really need to remember they learn from their environment,” said co-author Cary P. Gross, professor at Yale School of Medicine.
The proposed solution is to censor our media. To censor what is being broadcast to the viewers. The question remains, however, is that really going to fix the problem?
This solution may in fact work. Allowing the parent to control what his or her child is watching, listening to, etc. , will eliminate the guilt of knowing that said child is hearing this in the home. Yet, what happens when that child goes to school, or to a friend’s house, or even walks down the street.
Research can also show that the world is a much more dangerous place then the media depicts. In fact, it can be said that the media is simply a byproduct of what the world itself does. Censoring what is being put on television or broadcast over the radio waves may not entirely solve the problem. It is only one piece of the puzzle.
Obesity comes from lack of activity, cursed genes, and junk food. Mass media can play a hand in two of these factors.
Parents can also counteract both of them. If a parent does not want their child consuming the junk food then they should just not buy it for them or supply the money for it. They should stress to the child and show the child healthy eating habits. It may mean a change of lifestyle for the grownups as well but it will negate the negative conditioning.
“I think we were pretty surprised by how overwhelming the number of studies was that showed this negative health impact,” NIH bioethicist Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the researchers in the report released by the advocacy group Common Sense Media, said in a telephone interview to Reuters.
“The fact that it was probably more a matter of quantity than actual content is also a concern. We have a media-saturated life right now in the 21st century. And reducing the number of hours of exposure is going to be a big issue.”
When the facts are taken in to account, a child will mimic their parents. For example, if the parents are active, usually the child is and vice versa. Same goes for violence and vulgarity. If they child does no hear it on the television they are going to hear it from their friends, or their parents, or even passersby on the street. It is impossible to censor a living person. The only method of solution is to counteract the effects.
In the end, the populace may succeed in censoring the media and news, but may come to find out they are still faced with the same dilemma. Active participation in the upbringing of a child and in this it is meant an active interest in the mind of the child is the important step in stopping this “crisis”. An old dog will always revert to old tricks. Therefore, when it is young it must be taught the good ones
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