The Negative effects of Media and Television on Teenagers in Society.English

 The Negative effects of Media and Television on Teenagers in Society.

English 

Period 1

Mr. Ferrara

As implied by John Mil Stuart, “The only way in which human can make some approach to knowing the whole of a subject is by hearing what is said by every person of every variety of opinion and by studying all the modes in which it can be looked at by every character of mind.” No man ever acquired his wisdom in any way but this.” (David Haugen, pg 7).  I believe this theory to be true. People have yielded to the influence of television and media as if their life depends on it. It is funny because as stated by Darry F Zanuck in 1949, “Television won’t be able to hold on to the market. “ People will soon get tired of starting at a plywood box” (David Haugen, 88).  What Darry F Zanuck said is the exact opposite of the role of television media in society   today. Media and television both promote three negative things in teenagers drugs and alcohol use, sex and violence. As a result teenagers imitate what they see on television   

Media violence has been a problem of society for generations. Whether it is from movies, radio, or internet the reaction of young adolescents to media violence is the same.  Media violence creates violence teens. In 1956, there was a study to compare twenty four children behavior watching television, twelve children watched a violence episode of “Woody the Woodpecker.” The other twelve children watched “The Little Red Hen.” The children who watched “Woody the Woodpecker” were more aggressive and began to hit each other and break toys. The other children remained passive playing with their toys.(mediaawarenessnetwork.com). This proves that children react very negatively to violent messages on television.  After these children watched violent shows they interacted very aggressively with people and their surrounding environment.  Children are imitating actions on television for many reasons. One factor is peer pressure the activities of teenagers are strongly influenced by their friends. Teens have his notion that if they do not participate in the activities they will be labeled as outcast of society by their peers. In addition, teens just want to have fun regardless of their morals even if they know the activities they are doing are wrong.   Some teenagers do certain activities because they think they could get away with it. Sometimes when teenagers so things they should not they may feel invisible and this believe may lead some of them getting involved with illegal drugs and or other rebellious behavior.                                                                         

In Another study, one hundred children were divided into two groups to see the affect of real world violence versus the affects of cartoon violence on preschool children. The children were divided into four into groups; the first group watched a man shouting insults at a doll while hitting it with a mallet. The second group watched an incident on television. The third group watched a cartoon and the fourth group watched nothing. (www.mediaawarenessnetwork.com The children who were exposed to real violence and cartoon violence in these first three scenarios experienced conflicts with each other. They reacted very aggressive when faced with a problem in the real world environment.    This experiment proves that adolescents are very easily persuaded by media messages in society. The problem is that media messages emphasize the wrong ideals such as a racism, violence, sex, prejudice towards the elderly and many more negative ideals.  As a result, the messages are submerged into the minds of teenagers.  The messages negatively influence the morals that have been taught to them by their parents, which may lead them to commit crimes. 

Research has proven that video games cause aggressive behavior and health problems such as high blood pressure, and increased heart rate. These are some the short term affects of media violence on children. In addition Scientists have found the long term; affects of violent television on adults can cause more psychological illness than children. In addition, media violence has a direct coloration with juvenile arrests and the drug use of teenagers. Statics are very astounding according to the Department of Justice in 1997 2.8 million teens were arrested under the age of eighteen.  Out of the 2.8 million 2,500 were arrested for murder in addition, 121 thousand teen were arrested for violent crimes such as drug possession especially the use of marijuana.  The FBI accounted for nineteen percent of all juvenile arrests, and fourteen percent of all murder arrests. Even ought the number of teenage arrested had slightly decreased from 1996 ¬-1997. In 1997 the number of juvenile arrests for violent crimes was forty nine percent above the number of juvenile arrests in 1988. The most surprising fact is that nine to fifteen percent of teen boys carry a weapon to school including a knife, gun, and a razor. According to the Department of Justice the juvenile arrests will double in 2010. (David Haugen, pg 18-19).

Bullying is another result of media violence. Did you know that two out of five kids get bullied every day?  There was even a Supreme Court case that questionably blamed the impact of video game violence to be the cause that led a group of boys to supposedly harass and beat a boy until he eventually died. It turns out that the boy hung himself. This shows how misleading video games and media are on the youth of society. Media and television can be a bad influence on adolescents because it robs youth of their innocence. The programs that children and teens watch express inappropriate messages such as sex and teen pregnancies. 

The media is responsible for a serious problem with adolescent girls.  Young girls are very vulnerable to media messages about being attractive and the having a perfect body.  Some young girls have unrealistic expectations of having bodies similar to that of a Super Model. Many teenage girls worry about whether they can keep up with the fashion style of their peers. Research has shown that fifteen percent of young women have some eating disorder pattern (http// www Essay forum .com).

Teenage pregnancy has become very common in this generation. Teenagers are becoming more sexually active at a younger age due to all the sexually explicit media that surrounds them in their daily life. These images are seen and heard on television, magazines, song lyrics, and the computer.  Girls are subjected to sexually activity because they think it will keep them popular with their friends. Teenage pregnancy is taught to be safe because of contraceptives such as birth control bills.  Did you know in t United States Teen pregnancy is double that of any other industrialized nation. There was a survey conducted by the American Academy  of Pediatrics the team interviewed 1,461 teenage girls between the ages of twelve to seventeen by speaking to them on the phone  three times between the years of 2001 to 2004 http://www.time.com/time). These interviews confirm recent studies representing correlation between sexual context on television and teenage pregnancy.  Teens that are exposed to high levels of television sexual content ninety percent of the population in America were twice as likely to experience a pregnancy in the subsequent three years. Teenage girls who watch less sexual content on television have no pregnancy before the age of twenty those teenage girls are only 10th percent of the population. Despite this fact it is very unrealistic that media will ever limit the amount of sexual content on television because the only thing famous producer care about is making money. As a result, The Academy of Pediatrics created a media awareness campaign to inform people about the dangers of media on adolescents. 

    Teenage pregnancy has declined dramatically since 1991. However, this rate remains the highest among other industrialized nations.  Research has showed that in the United States in       the year 2002 out of one thousand pregnancies seventy six of them   were teen pregnancies among the age group of fifth teen- nineteen -year-old individuals. Nearly one million young women fifth teen to nineteen years of age, in addition twenty percent of all sexually active women in this age group, become pregnant each year; the majority of these pregnancies are unplanned. (www.pediatrics.aappublications.org). The effects of a teen pregnancy (or pregnancy before age 20) on young mothers fathers, their children, and society as a whole can be profound. Young mothers are more likely than others to drop out of school, to require public assistance, and they are forced live in poverty because teens are inexperienced and cannot support themselves. In fact, teen mothers have earnings that average less than one half of the poverty level. In addition, teen mothers are less likely to have effective parenting skills or adequate social support as average adult parent’s .Teen fathers face similar challenges. For example, teen fathers complete an average of one year less of an education than other boys, who delay fatherhood until they are adults.   Teen fathers often enter the labor market sooner than their friends because of their fatherhood and ultimately earn less in their twenties than their peers. Compared with children of older mothers, children born to adolescent mothers are at higher risk of low birth weight, limited fine motor skills, and low math and reading abilities. The   children of ` teen mothers are also more likely to drop out of high school themselves.

    In order to avoid the corruption of adolescents’ parent should have a strong influence on what their children watch on television. Here are some suggestions on how to do so. One   way parents can limit television is blocking certain channels, their children watch if the shows are violent or are age inappropriate for children. Children believe that the way actors are perceived to die in movies is the way they die in real life. Parents should talk to their children about the truth behind the death, and explain why they had to block the channels. To avoid peer pressure and embarrassment of your children, parents should try to talk to parents of their children’s friends into the same thing.  Parents should try to persuade their children to watch educational programs with them, instead of the violent programs that children love to watch.  Finally, the most important thing can do to prevent television and media from promoting three negative things in teenager’s drugs and alcohol, violent, and sex. Children must stop imitating the actions they see on television just because some celebrities encourage products or activities does not mean they are good for body or morally correct. Celebrities just focus on created an image that teenagers hope to obtain by the products. Meanwhile the only thing celebrities have to do is read “fancy scripts and make millions of dollars. Many of today’s most popular role models are a bad influence on teenagers such as lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Lindsey Logan Justin Beater, and many more.  A nice healthy alternative to watching television and avoiding too much media influence is parents persuading their children to get outside and excising by playing with their friends at the park staying active and healthy life. Instead of being a lazy couch potato watching television or on sitting there on computer on Face book to friends because teenagers are too lazy to hangout for their friends for real. The image above shows how much of a negative influence media has become on the adolescents of society.

Work cited

“Affects of Media Violence on Boys.” Media awareness network. 20 November, 2010.

    www. mediaawarenessnetwork.com.   

“Children and TV Violence.” fact for family. 17, November 2010. www.Aacap. Org /children and TV Violent / fact for family

“English 101 Research Paper on the Negative of Media on Children.”  Essay fourm.com  November 17 2010. www. EssayForum.com/ writing feedback.>.  

Gerdes, Louise. Media. Voilence Library of Congress: Chirstine Nasso, 2004.

Haugen, David.  Media  Violence. Greenhavan Press: Bonnie Szumski 2004.

      

“Talk Debate TV Does more harm than good.”Debatepedia.  November 17 2010. www.debate .org/ index. nhp. 

“Watching Sex on Television Predicts Adolescent Initiation of Sexual” Behavior pediatraic decmember 19 2010. /pediatrics.aappublications.org/