Televisions Influence on Children
Television’s Influence on ChildrenIn the United States today, 99 percent of all
homes have
at least one television, and 58 percent of all
children ages
6-17 have a television in their bedrooms (Miller,
1997).
Considering these statistics, it is not
surprising that
research reveals that television is a major
influence in the
lives of the nation’s children. Television
programs are
instantly available, and with good reception, via
cable and
satellite dishes, causing this medium to become
the coal point
of family life. Nevertheless, some families are
wondering if
they control the television or if it controls
them (Miller,
1997).
By the time an American child graduates from
high school,
the typical child will have watched an average of
four hours
of television per dayóthat translates into having
witnessed
8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence by the
time they’ve
completed elementary school (Miller, 1997, p.
38).
Additionally, children are regularly exposed to
between 50 to
80 commercials per day (p. 38).
Studies have traced such negative side effects
as poor
academic performance, obesity, aggressive
behavior and
precocious sexuality to excessive TV viewing
(Miler, 1997, p.
38). Children who are watching television are not
learning
social skills through interactions with people.
Children who
are watching television are not exercising young
bodies and
given young bones the resistance they need to
develop
properly. Three thousand studies that have been
conducted over
the last 20 years report that television has a
negative impact
on the development of children, yet we continue
to watch
(Miller, 1997).
Recent research indicates that it is not just
violence,
but also the type of violence that is depicted
that affects
the way that children relate to the world. For
example, when
the actors involved in the violence are
attractive, it
increases the chances that the violence will be
copied by
young views then if the violent act was performed
by an
unattractive actor (Kremar, 1998).
Also, a recent meta-analysis of 217 research
studies
showed that audiences are must more likely to
imitate programs
that contain violence that is justified then
violent acts that
are portrayed as unjustified (Kremar, 1998, p.
250). What
appear to be the operable factor is whether or
not the viewer
perceives the violence as part of the norm
(Kremar, 1998).
Children, not have fully been socialized into
societal norms,
believe that what they see on television is the
societal norm
if that’s how it is presented. Considering this,
it makes
sense that they would perceive violence as normal
if they
don’t have information to the contrary.
Boys appear to be more affected by television
violence
then girls (Kremar, 1998). Research shows that
they tend to be
more imitative of television violence then girls,
and that
they tend to identify with the actors
perpetrating the
violence more then girls. In this regard, there
is a growing
body of influence that indicates that age plays a
role in
children’s tendency to respond aggressively to
violent media
images (Kremar, 1998). There is an overall
increase in the
relationship between violence viewed on
television and
aggressive behavior as children age.
In other words, if children, and particularly
boys, have
no other role models to follow, as they grow
upóbecause of a
lack of parental involvement, they will follow
the role models
that they see on television. It is part of the
business of
childhood to assimilate what it means to be an
adult. If boys
aren’t being interacted with by the adults in
their
environment, they appear to turn to television
and the media
for their ideas as to what it means to be an
adult male.
This has also led many researchers to...
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