There was an interesting book that I read a few years back that did not seem to leave my mind. The book read something like society is clouded by the idea of creative solutions that makes them so enamored by the thought that what we have now is progress at its finest. However, the question is whether innovation actually transcends to the cornerstone of human values or is it isolated to the superficial and the materialistic realm of our existence. Are we just naïve and gullible that we failed to see what media and popular culture are doing to us, manipulating us to agreeing that we need something that we don’t or that we will only be fulfilled under a certain condition? It hard to turn our back from these influences because regardless of where we turn, a facet of these two concepts will always be there staring right through our eyes. Nevertheless, this is not to assert that we can completely do away with media or the influence of popular culture but how mature are we to actually know where the influence starts and where its boundaries ends. The main contention of this paper is to persuade people to re-evaluate how much they want media and popular culture to shape their children’s minds. Thus, there is the need to highlight the implications of media and popular culture to the youth by focusing on the youth’s activities, their values and their principles as shaped by these forces.
Discussion
Defining popular culture can be quite excruciating considering that different references offers a different interpretation of the term. In addition, the characteristic of culture being dynamic makes it hard to offer a universal description of popular culture. Nevertheless, a commonality that all these definitions provided is that at one point during the history this trend, or whatever it is has become a craze that nearly everyone would like to draw an association to as with the case of the hype created by online games like Candy Crush or Angry Bird. All across the border the interest of the society is drawn to what created this massive hype and how it could spread like wildfire. The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood offered a good explanation of this behavior. According to them, media has a large part to play in this mass indoctrination and parents have become an agent without the latter’s knowledge of their participation. They furthered that children as early as two-year old until the time they reach 11 would most likely see 25,000 advertisement in television (Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood). In 2003, a study conducted by authors Jennifer Cheeseman Day, Alex Janus, and
Jessica Davis they revealed that 62% of American household have a computer, while 54.7% have access to the internet (Cheeseman Day, Janus and Davis, 1-2). Given the advancement in technology it is not surprising that this figure could have already been doubled. However, the point is that society complains about how much the youth of today are entirely different from the youths during their time. They complain that there exists the deterioration of values and the loose morale of the youth and blame media such brute behavior. Also in the same year as Day, Janus and Davis’ study was a study that suggests that the media and the internet should be blamed for the youth’s impulsive and ill-mannered behavior (Anderson, Berkowitz and Donnerstein). However, the parents failed to realize that they had become media’s most useful and accessible avenue to reach the youths. Parents would rather buy their children cellphones, tablets, laptops, and computers rather than have them roam outside the house. Some parents also believe that by giving children their own TV inside their room that would secure the children. However, while all these are fed to the youths, their online activities and their viewing choices are kept unsupervised. Only when things go wrong does parents become aware and most of the time it’s already late and they go passing the blame to media.
Conclusion
Works Cited
Anderson, Craig, et al. "The Influence of Media Violence on Youth." Psychological Science in the Public Interest (2003): 81-110. Print.
Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood. Marketing Violence to Children. 15 August 2008. Web. 18 November 2014.
Cheeseman Day, Jennifer, Alex Janus and Jessica Davis. U.S. Census Bureau: Computer and Internet Use in the United States, 2003. 7 October 2005. Web. 18 November 2014.
