Me, being a 24 year-old women, I feel as though I have seen a thing or two. Growing up, I was always allowed to watch TV, but TV wasn't what surrounded my fun and enjoyment during my childhood. I remember the days when I would play outside from when the sun came out to when the street lights turned on. Being "grounded" meant not being able to go outside and play.
Well, nowadays, I fear that kids don't play enough outside, kids are too immune to finding their enjoyment in watching TV or playing video games, furthermore, our kids aren't having their parents as role model instead its Hollywood actor #1. This is only the beginning of the media's influence of us and our children.
The youth is whom is really in danger. With all the craze about reality tv shows, our youth have no good role models. I was watching an episode of Jersey Shore on MTV. For heavens sake, I saw girls making-out with girls for 5-7 minutes of air-time, and guys creeping at every girl they saw in an effort to "hook-up" for the evening, or a minute, how ever long they last. As I watched this show, I thought how thankful I was to have Tiffani Amber Thiessen or Jonathan Tyler Thomas as a role model, not Mike the Situation or Snooki. Also coming from MTV, is the show Teen Mom. How many 16 year-old females are running around trying to find a baby's daddy to become the next sixteen-and-pregnant star?
Now I ask, how does the media influence our youth? Not only do the TV shows provide terrible influential opportunities but other forms of media employ the same idea. Think of magazine covers or commercial advertisement. The pounds of make up that women wear, or the air brushed abs that the men share. Is this our idea of what we want, or how we must look? We have to beware of the media's influence of us and our youth. I refuse to see a Pauly D want-a-be in the White House in the year 2020.
I became aware of these ideas after reading the book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, by Neil Postman. This book has a powerful and time-appropriate argument that, in my opinion, everyone in our nation should read, especially the youth.
This problem is one of the many problems in an imaged based culture. Think about the days when our culture was based on print or even word. These were the days when reading to learn knowledge was a status symbol, or when understanding the words of a presidential speech was expected by everyone. We, as a nation, have come a long way from the days of learning and understanding.
There are many more valid ideas in Postman's book. This is why I am actively campaigning for this book to be read by every high school student in America. Just by reading this book, I became so inspired by the words of Postman's argument that I formed a cause surrounded by the book. Imagine how many other students he can inspire.
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