Wow! It matters THAT much....

This week in poetry class, we read Amiri Baraka's poem, "In Memory of Radio." First off, this poem was absolutely awesome, because it brings up a very accurate point about the changes in society in mid-twentieth century America. He writes, "What can I say? / It is better to haved loved and lost /Than to put linoleum in your living rooms?," trying to denigrate the new ideals of a new America. Another reason why I loved his poem so much is because he uses radio program titles of shows he probably watched as a child to show how these shows affected his morals and maturation process. That concept made me think, how did media affect me growing up? In response to this question, I wrote a poem:

Whether it was Arthur or WWE,

My butt never left the couch.

Every show, every commercial meant something to me.

The use of body language to show excitement, disappointment,

Even promiscuity.

Learning special words such as ‘superiority,’ ‘incognito,’

Even osculation.

I absorbed it all like a sponge.

A sponge in the Sahara,

Thirsting for any form of moisture.

For those who now say that television is useless,

Look back then.

Veggie Tales, Little Bear, Full House.

Now a days what is there?

Late night HBO?

This concept also interested me to research it on a larger level. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF):

• two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch a screen an average of 2 hours a day
• kids under age 6 watch an average of about 2 hours of screen media a day, primarily TV and videos or DVDs
• kids and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (outside of schoolwork) and playing video games

Now, television is not all bad for children. Television channels including the Discovery Channel, The History Channel, Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and PBS have all been considered "educational." Unfortunately, children watch more than these limited channels, making children react in the following manners:

• Kids who view violent acts are more likely to show aggressive behavior but also fear that the world is scary and that something bad will happen to them.
• Kids who watch TV characters who often depict risky behaviors, such as smoking and drinking, and also reinforce gender-role and racial stereotypes often reenact these behaviors. 

Knowing that some television shows are not suitable for children, the FCC created a Parental Ratings system for Television programs. As the level of the rating increases, the suggested audience becomes more selective. However, disobedient children, as well as naive parents oftentimes do not follow these ratings, which in the end strongly affects a child's development process. 


Statistic show that a fair majority of a child's discipline issues or problems have a direct correlation with either his or her home life, or what he or she is exposed to from the media. Multiple parents have recognized this statistic, so parents purchase parental control tools, allowing them to block television programs that they do not want their children to see. Do I think this is effective? Yes. Frankly, I think every parent should have this technology on their televisions, but unfortunately, not all parents are good parents. On a recent interview with 60 Minutes, famous rap star Eminem briefly speaks about his opinion on parenting. Obviously, a lot of material in Eminem's songs are very intense and vulgar. However, he told Anderson Cooper that he uses that language to only sell records. “I’m a parent. I have daughters. I mean, how would I really sound as a person … walking around my house [saying] ‘Bitch, pick this up,’ you know what I mean? … I don’t cuss,” he told Cooper. “Profanity around my house? No,” Eminem adds. “I’m not saying there’s not glimpses of me in the music, [that] there’s not truth in … things that I say,” the rapper says. “But this music, this is my art.” The climax of the interview was when Cooper asked the rap star if he feels any sort of responsibility for younger children listening to his explicit songs. Not only does he feel no responsibility whatsoever, he also rebutted, “I feel like it’s your [a parent's] job to parent them. If you’re the parent, be a parent.” The world needed to hear that kind of comment from somebody, because I think that the world needs to make steps in the right direction to solve this cyclical dilemma of exposing graphic and profane materials to children. Who is there to blame? 




Additional Links / Videos 


http://www.tvguidelines.org/index.htm


http://allpsych.com/journal/violentmedia.html


http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/16514/the_effects_of_media_on_children.html?cat=25


http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/125/4/756


http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/448017_2


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-491796/Televison-violence-tied-young-boys-aggression.html