Abstract
The cognitive psychology postulates that the environment and the person influence the human behavior. As such, the exposure of the children to the TV shows encompasses the environment that influences the way they interact. Based on the result of the interview, the parents sampled confirm that they have noted behavior change among their children. Indeed, some of the children emulated the characters in the TV shows while others pressure their parents to keep up with the standards in the movies. Notably, the findings of this paper agree with the reviews of previous studies. Particularly, both confer that excess TV consumption and the inappropriate content such as stereotypes on race/ethnicity and social classes have negative effects on the children interaction. For instance, the review shows that excessive watching could lead to poor communication between the child and the parent due to the “externalizing and internalizing”. Eventually, it leads to acting out and withdrawal behavior such as the low contentment and depression. However, the study indicates that early and appropriate intervention can reverse these negative behaviors. Additionally, it underscores the importance of exercise due care among the media personality when airing their shows. Still, it suggests that the government should enforce decency bills to govern the media houses.
Introduction
TV has been and still is an important electronic device for many households. For instance, it is a source of entertainment to the family through entertainment programs, music, and sports. Additionally, there are education programs, news and culture awareness. It is also important to note that TV is an ever-present part of the modern for the current family setting. However, there is both good and inappropriate content in the TV programs. As such, there is an aspect of TV control as regards to content and consumption time, particularly among the children.
Technology has diversified the ways we view TV content to cover various viewers as explained by Jin (2011). For example, desktop and phone users can use the internet to access the TV content. This has had impacts on parenting since the children can access the content freely from the noted sources. Still, the inappropriate content has negative impacts on the children in many ways. More specifically, it affects the way children interact with other people. Additionally, they may pick race stereotypes from the inappropriate contents. Notably, cognitive psychology notes that behaviors are affected by the person and the environment around them. As such, TV viewing impacts on child’s perception that in turn influences their brain functions. Therefore, TV influences thinking processes, language and consequently, the children’s actions of. To prevent these effects, there are regulations to control TV among the children. For instance, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) stipulates that children under the age of two years are not supposed to watch any TV while those above it are supposed to watch for between 1 to 2 hours of good quality content in a day.
The research will investigate the effects of TV shows on how the children interact. In the first section, the paper will review past studies and outline the methodology used in data collection. In the second part, it will look into the collected data, make analysis and suggest the policy implications. Lastly, it will draw conclusions.
Literature review
Past studies show that television is available to 99% of the children aged between 8 to 18 years as explained by Swanson, Edwards and Spencer (2010). Still, 71% of all the children in this age bracket had TV sets in their bedroom. However, the tradition way of watching TV has been on the down scale for the last two decades. This is attributable to the increased consumption of the technology by the many households in the form of smart phones. Therefore, the aggregate consumption of the TV content has risen because of a large number of the people possessing phones that are internet enabled. Particularly, the children own smartphones that are used to access the TV content.
According to Siegel (2011), children watch TV for an average of more than two hours in a day while their exposure media was approximated to be higher than five hours. This took into account the number of hours that the children multitasked while accessing the TV content. In most cases, the studies noted that there are negative impacts associated with excessive TV consumption on the children. This affects the growth and development that affect the way children think and interact in later stages of life.
The most immediate effect that appears in most of the earlier studies is that children who consume TV excessively have a low social life. Indeed, such children do not engage in school activities and intellectually stimulating activities. Consequently, it lowers the children’s level of contentment and performance on school assessment tests. Additionally, these studies indicate that both the good quality and inappropriate TV content have negative impacts on the growth and development of the children when consumed in excess. For instance, a mother watching an educative family program with her children is unlikely to hold a conversation during the show time. This lowers the parental involvement in the life of the young ones. Likewise, the research found that the children that watched for more than three hours per day communicated poorly with their parents and they were likely to hold issues to themselves. This has a negative impact on the communication behavior. In fact, such children have high levels of acting out to express themselves to their parents. Additionally, they may result in “internalizing” behavior such as depression because they lack connection with people around them.
Other studies have shown that excessive TV viewing disrupts and harms the physical health of the children. This is more pronounced in the sleeping patterns and physical activities since most of the hours are spent seated or lying on their beds as noted by Freedman (2009). Moreover, watching among the very young, three years, interferes with the attention span, it decreases in later stages of their life. In fact, some studies link the increased cases of the lifestyle diseases such as the obesity among the children to sedentary hours spent watching TV.
As regards to the inappropriate TV content watched by the children such as violent and explicit scenes, the impact is quite lethal. Children may become aggressive when solving disagreement and disputes that may occur as they interact with their peers. This is carried to the later stages; young adults that were exposed to violent TV content tend to be aggressive. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) noted that most children are exposed to TV shows before they join the school. The Foundation found that none of the regulations and recommendation on the children TV viewing is implemented. This has long-term negative impacts on the life of the affected children.
Methodology
The researcher used the purposive sampling technique to come up with a sample of three families from the entire population. The families selected are representative of different ethnicity, social classes, and various children age. Bearing in mind that the data on the household is heterogeneous, it is rational to apply a technique that does not lead to skewed data as the cases must be spread to cover most of the population characteristics. This improves the validity of the data collected and reliability of the analysis conducted. Particularly, the qualitative aspects of the households such as the ethnicity require purposive sampling to spread the cases among all the population elements. However, this technique of the sample determination has few shortcomings. For instance, there is the aspect of bias and non-scientific approach that is devoid of any defense.
Interview and questionnaires were used in the data collection among the sampled families. The use of the questionnaire in the data collection is important in making sure that the interviewer does not wander from the research data. Still, it helps in creating the uniformity of the data collected from the sample making it easier to analyze and compare the data collected. Still, the interview is relevant and applicable to the data collection on the effect of TV shows on the children’s interaction. For instance, it gives the interviewer a chance to probe for more information and the interviewee may seek clarification on the questions posed. This makes sure that only the relevant data is recorded on the questionnaire. Still, the responses from the interview are timely as compared to the mailed questionnaire that may take long to be sent to the researcher. However, the interview has a major limitation. The interviewee may fail to give the personal information. Still, the respondent may be unwilling to cooperate; this leads to time wastage.
Data
In all the three samples, the parents have a range of hours that their children consume TV. However, one of the parents does not know the exact consumption time. As regards to setting rules, one of the parents with a five-year-old child does not set rules since the child watches more when restricted. In the case of the seven-year-old, the parent set the rules while for the 16-year-old it depends on the exam performance. Additionally, the sampled parents knew what their children watched on TV and were aware that the watched content would influence the children’s behavior both now and in future as an adult. Indeed, some narrated instances when their children tried to act like the movie characters.
Limiting the time the children watch TV is faced with some resistance; indeed, the children tend to watch more or go back to their watching time when the parent are not around. In the case of 16 years old, the parent felt that child is old enough, and thus she should not control her. All the children pressure their parents to keep up with the standards in the movie that they have watched. Still, it is notable that parents have had witnessed cases where the movies promoted stereotypes on race/ethnicity as well as social class. However, none of the show has been noted to break down the stereotypes. Based on the data, most of the parents are not available to watch with their children since they are normally working. In other cases, the parents do not understand some of the languages used in the shows, so they don’t watch with their children all the time. The supplied responses indicate that some of the parents are aware of their children’s friends influence on what to watch while most of them were not sure of it. The cases of bullying are rare across the sampled families; however, there is a general view that the TV should be improved to capture the real issues in life; it would promote healthy growth and development among the children.
Result analysis
Based on the data, it is clear that most of the parents are aware of the risks involved in letting the children consume TV in excess. The perception created from the unrealistic scenes and stereotypes on social classes, and the race/ethnicity would negatively impact on their behavior. The parents’ confession is in line with the findings of previous studies discussed in the literature review. Notably, the cognitive psychology attributes behavior to persons and their environment. As such, controlling the TV consumption time and setting rules improves the children environment. This aims at cultivating good behavior now and in the future.
Additionally, it is clear that most of the parents are not aware of the influences of their children’s friends on the content and frequency of the shows watched. This is indicative of the externalization effects that emanates from that the parents are away at workplace and the children spend time watching TV shows. This interferes with the connection linking the parents and their children.
The data also show there is the resistance to change among the children; particularly when the parents limit their watching time. This is caused by the perception already created by watching a particular show. For instance, the child may embody a certain character in a TV show; hence limiting him/her from watching that show may be faced with resistance.
Policy implication
The late control causes the ineffective intervention by the parents in their children's watching habits. As such, the child has already an established behavior that is hard to break. Thus, it is important for the parent to set the rules for their children right from the tender age. This will be a preventive measure. Therefore, both the parents and the children need to be educated on the effects of excessive watching and inappropriate content such as violent scenes, stereotypes and other elements that affect the children negatively.
Additionally, the government should draw and enforce decency clauses on the media houses to control the inappropriate content from getting to the children. This will promote decency in the TV stations. Still, the anchors and the TV personalities need to reference on ethical and morality practices; this will promote due care and due professionalism when airing their shows.
Conclusion
The research confirms that there are negative effects on the children derived from the excessive TV watching and inappropriate content. Indeed, the research conducted notes that some of the parents have already noticed these effects. For instance, the children may embody the characters rather than be themselves. In other cases, there are race and social class stereotypes. However, the paper indicates that there are remedies to these problems. For instance, the parent should limit the number of hours their children spend watching. Still, it is important to make sure that the content they are watching is appropriate. However, this can only be possible if the parents make time with their children.
The government and the media houses have their share of responsibility in making sure that the content is decent for the viewers. Thus, the government should take an active role in ensuring decency. On the other hand, the media houses need to create effective and appropriate ethics to protect the children from the inappropriate TV content.
References
Freedman, R. (2009). Noise Wars: Compulsory' Media and our loss' of autonomy. New York: Algora Pub.
Jin, D. Y. (2011). Global media convergence and cultural transformation: Emerging social patterns and characteristics. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
Siegel, L. J. (2011). Criminology: The Core. Australia: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.
Swanson, D. P., Edwards, M. C., & Spencer, M. B. (2010). Adolescence: Development During a Global Era. Burlington: Elsevier Science
