Critics often charge that television's portrayal of violent and sexual themes powerfully affects its viewers, especially children. How much of a role do you think TV plays in the socialization process? Does it affect everyone to the same extent? Post your positions in your blog and defend your positions.
As I was reading the text, I realized how true it is that media for example television affects children’s process of growing up and socialization. We all know that television is the greatest source for entertainment. For parents it’s the easy way out of parenting sometimes. When children become fussy, parents often turn to television to baby sit the children. Children learn way too much and way too fast like sexuality and violence. It definitely affects everyone because as we watch something on television, those ideas grows in a person’s mind. TV acts like a role model for the youth, it teaches them how to dress and speak etc. Youngsters are so engulfed by such media content because of video games and other media related activities that their level of physical and social interaction has decreased. Even though television offers a lot of information, some good and some bad, it has definitely caused people to change how they socialize in public.
In my opinion, what we watch on television transforms us, what we see, we like and then consequently we want. For example, if I like what an actress is wearing on television I tend to dress up like her. Another example is that when my younger cousin was 4 years old. She watched a teenage show on Disney Channel and she started talking and acting like the older kid on TV. After we watch something on TV I believe it affects our subconscious, that’s why when people watch a horror movie they tend to get nightmares especially children. I think children are more at risk from the negative effects of socialization through TV because they do not understand marketing and advertising. Adults are more capable of detecting the pressure advertising puts on the viewer. In general our great dependency on TV is not healthy for adults or for our children. In this day and age we can’t live without TV, but too much of anything is dangerous.
