Report of Media Deception on children’s Education Essay

With a new technology develops and advances, the debate about their negative impact on society also increases simultaneously. Media has been changed rapidly in last few decades. Today, everyone can see the impact of media in everyone’s life be it home or outside. The role of the media has been changed and because of progress of media the world has become global village. However, the negative side of media, especially its negative influence on children’s education through Television, Internet, and Video games can not be ignored. Discussion According to a study â€Å"American Kids now spend 40% less time with their parents than kids did in the mid-sixties. † They spend more time in watching TV, surfing internet and playing video games. The reason is not just TV and internet. The complexities of life, family size and traditional values, priorities and lifestyle have changed. â€Å"Our kids are living in an entirely different, much more complex media environment than we ever could have imagined at their age. The rule and the risks have changed radically, and many of us have been slow to grasp the difference. † Points out Steyer (2002), the Founder and Chairman of the media production firm JP Kids. American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) strongly suggest that kids under two years old should not watch any TV and that those older than two should not watch more than an hour or two and that too quality programs The Initial days of childhood are very crucial for brain development of a child. In that period, a child wants to interact with his parents and play with his toys. A child can learn many things through his interaction with parents and physical activities. Physical activities are very necessary to make a child healthy. Interaction with family members and physical activities are always very important for everyone’s lives at any stage of our life. We can be mentally and physically fit by doing both of the above written activities. Gradually a child gets older, watching TV and using other electronic media will get part of his routine. Too much involvement with any mode of media can be disturbed his normal life and growth. Child would not be able to do his normal routine activities like playing outdoor games with his friends, reading, doing homework etc. even a child will not be interested in spending time with his family members. Research says that those children, who spend more time with TV, get violent and get suspicious about the world and people around. Their confidence level decreased and they imagine that something bad will happen to them. The consequence of involvement of children with media are coming gradually, children of today are more violent as compare to past. Shows and games related to crime are becoming very popular among children. Media violence is very harmful for the growing mind and has negative psychological implications. There is an on going debate on the mass-marketing of such games. Media is selling women as an object, it creates enormous impact on teenagers’ mind and they become sexually violent. Video games with violence and sexually explicit presentations are harmful for the mental growth of the child. According to an article of Kids Health, â€Å"The average American child will witness 200, 000 violent acts on television by age 18. † By seeing violent acts on TV, they get emotionless and gradually they become violent. TV makes children curious about women, sex etc. and internet provides them depth information on the same topic. The provided information makes the situation worst. TV violence, most of the times done by the HEROES, so children take violence as the act of heroism. At the various occasion young kids believed that the TV violence is real and frightened by scary and brutal images. They can not distinguish between real and reel images, as consequence, they can have behaviour problems, nightmare, sleeping disorders, be wetting and other. Older kids can also be affected by horrible programs; parents should not allow for watching those programs. Parental guidance is needed for any violent or mature subject programs. TV is a full of programs and commercials that show risking human behaviour as fun that can include petty crimes to heinous crimes like rape and murder. TV commercial shows children to their ideals (Heroes) are smoking, drinking alcohol on the screen and they try to follow their role models. They can lead to drinking, smoking, drugs or substance abuse after the motivation from screen. Studies have shown that TV programs also motivate children to participate in sexual activities too early. The other drawback of spending time with media is on children is, who watch TV more than four hours more likely to be overweight. Overweight Child becomes public shy and loses their confidence as compare to normal child. Obese child will trap in inferiority complex after that he can not able to do good in academics and the other activities. May be that child will get addicted to take alcohol because of his inferiority complex. The health complexity and risk for obese children are higher. Many psychologists agree on the bad effect of over exposure of media on children, but still there has been an on-going debate whether or not television influences a child’s behavior. Parents have no doubt about the impact of media on their child but they never imagined that how much it can be influence a child until they will not faced the crime done by their child. There is important evidence on link between repeated exposure to media violence and behavioral effect said Dr. Susan Villani (1999). â€Å"A total of 25 Pershing Elementary School students in the before and after school program, participated in this study. They were observed prior, during, and post a Tom & Jerry video clip. After observing their behaviors post the video clip, each child was asked two questions based on their everyday television watching habits. It was found that television does influence a child’s behavior. Although, the results indicate that there wasn’t a significant difference between the pre-video and during-video behaviors. Further implications and limitations of these results are to be found in the paper† Mowers (2003) find out. Media can be very helpful for getting new information, instead of blaming media if parents will make some rules and stick on that, media would be helpful for their children’s growth. Steyer (2002) makes a list of top10 tips for parents. According to Steyer (2002) this is responsibility of parents to limit the exposure of kids to the media and particularly to the negative exposure. Negative exposure should be completely controlled. One can help our the process and understanding of media message among their children Steyer’s (2002) top 10 tips for parents are as follow: Establish good media habits early: Parents should choose, which program child will watch and parents should give accompany to the child while he is watching TV. 2. Location, Location, Location: Location of the TV and Computer is very important. Parents should not install TV or computer in child room. In the past time a computer covered huge area and was visible to everyone but with advancement of technology, size of computer has reduced. Parents can not see what their child is surfing on internet. So location of TV and Computer does matter, if parents want to keep eye on their kids. Set a media diet and stick to it: As a parent, you should make a routine for your kids that how much time they would devote for TV, Internet and video games. And parent should be stick on that. Sometime we give liberty to our child but it is not good for long term. 4. Teach your child to ask permission to use media: Parents should teach to their child to ask before they use internet or watch TV programs. This rule will make a difference. 5. Watch and listen with your kids – then tell them what you like, don’t like, and why: First of all listening to the child is the most important thing for a parent. Listen to the child first; what he wants to say after that parent can instruct him what he wants from his child. Parent should explain to his child that why he has given this instruction. 6. Set clear rules regarding your child’s media use in other homes: Parents should make the clear rule on use of media out of home. Try to not to give permission to use the media out of home, if your child is using for some important reasons like combined study, then supervise your child or make a surprise visit at the place. Have pediatricians review your kids’ media use as part of their annual checkup: Get pediatricians review on your kids’ media use; lets take the action, if pediatricians suggest something serious like vision problem. 8. Teach media literacy in school and at home: Parents should teach their kids about what is happening in around in the world. Parents should not feel shy to educate their children about sex education, because your child will know from the other sources and may be in the negative sense. You can teach your child in a very positive manner. So lets start to talk to your child on every topic, it would boost up your child’s confidence as well as your relationship with him. 9. Read to your child and share positive media experiences. Share the positive media experiences with your child like what you have learnt from internet or TV when you were child. It will divert your child’s mind to learn something positive and creative from the modes of media. 10. Switch the dial to â€Å"OFF. â€Å": When you have spare time, talk to your child instead of watching TV or surfing internet. Conclusion TV and internet are the good things to new thing but over exposure is bad. We can control our TV â€Å"You can easily control habit of TV watching of your child† according to the national PTA, medical experts and child development experts, I to help your family to become â€Å"Media Literate† and also positive media a new â€Å"Children’s digital media culture† is gradually improving on internet. Through some web site children can get important information which would be helpful for their education. Many NGOs are making effort to make media helpful for children ‘Montgomery (2000) concluded in his article. Media has provided us an excellent platform that can support the child development like anything. Children can learn and have fun over the same. This requires proper parental guidance, support and control over the media usage among the children. Reference: â€Å"CIC And PTA partnership†, Control Your TV Its Easy! Retrieved on 14 May 2010 from http://www. controlyourtv. org/#Education. aspx Kids Health, How TV Affects Your Child retrieved on 14 May 2010 from http://kidshealth. org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child. html# â€Å"Montgomery K. C†, 2000. , Children’s Media Culture in the New Millennium: Mapping the Digital Landscape. retrieved on 14 May 2010 from < http://www. jstor. org/pss/1602693> â€Å"Mowers M. M. †, 2003. , Does Media Influence A Child’s Behavior? Retrieved on 14 May 2010 from http://clearinghouse. missouriwestern. edu/manuscripts/402. php â€Å"Stayer P. J. †, 2002. , The Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media’s Effects on Our Children. Retrieved on 14 May 2010 from < http://www. amazon. com/Other-Parent-Inside-Medias-Children/dp/0743405838#reader_0743405838>