James Morrison, an entertainer, states that “whoever controls the media, controls the brain. ” Within this quote, Morrison implies that the media has an effect on the human brain and can affect it tremendously.
The media has effects on teenagers, both positive and negative. The media is a vast forum of communication that permeates nearly every aspect of culture (Mokeyane). It consists of a broad spectrum of communication such as: television, films, web sites, the radio, commercials, and newspapers.These varieties of communication offers the youth entertainment, news, culture, and education, “They are [the media] an important part of our lives and have much to teach” (Understanding the Impact). Teenagers excess amount of access to the media has grown incredibly. Over the past five years, there has been a myriad increase in media use.
An average of teenagers use the media from nearly six and a half hours to over seven and a half hours (Perle). This mass medium introduces an array of diversity in different forms (Mokeyane).Contributing to teenagers knowledge, the media helps influence cultural learning, social interaction, and awareness of many topics. News outlets such as CNN, FOX News, and Al-Tazeena English provide teenagers with an opportunity to develop a political stance. Exposure to these media sources or any type of news informing events revolving around the world, also allow teenagers to participate in charitable acts or consider other ways to engage in benevolent deeds (Mokeyane).In today’s society, social networks are teenagers most accessible form of interaction.
A social network is any site that allows a person to interact socially. Such sites offers today’s youth entertainment and communication. These networks-Facebook, Twitter, Myspace- delivers teenagers a gateway to connect with friends, family, and strangers to exchange ideas and to make new companions (O’Keefe and Clark-Pearson). Many benefits are caused by social networks. Teens learn to enhance their social skills, their confidence, and their media literacy (Mokeyane).
Engaging in various forms of social media is an activity research has shown to benefit children and adolescents by enhancing communication, social connection, and technical skills. Also teenagers have became more aware about their health due to the media. Improvement in technology has made it become easier for teenagers to be a lot more aware about their health compared to decades ago. The web sites teenagers use daily has produced countless improvements in teengaers health care, such as increased medication adherence and better understanding of disease (O’Keefe and Clark-Pearson).The media bring many positives to a teenager'a world.
Although this massive network provides positive attributes to the world, it also provides negatives. The media can eventually lead teenagers into developing abnormal behavior, lower academic fulfillment, and obesity. Encouraging drugs, alcohol, sex and violence, the media exposes teenagers to behaviors that are considered fallacious. Violence being an effect caused by the media is considered the most controversial. “‘Exposure to television is as strongly correlated with aggressive behavior as any other behavioral variable that has been measured’” (Favre).At an extremely young age, teenagers are exposed to the media’s display of violence which allows them to inhabit aggressive behaviors (Understanding the Impact).
A study showed that 4-year olds who consumes violence in the media have a greater chance of being bullies once they become teenagers (Ransohoff). Also, the media can begin to endorse different types of ideals which can convince teenagers into believing a certain image is considered to be perfect. Teenagers begin to form false images of themselves and of the individuals around them.These stereotypes generally affect female adolescents rather than male adolescents. Young women begin to assimulate and begin to accustom to the stereotype, "having a perfect body is beauty" which is causing female teenagers to develop low self-esteems and eating disorders (Favre).
Advertisement has a persuasive influence on teens; It includes television, billboards,commercials, ect. "Teens who see a lot of ads for beer, wine, liquor, and cigarettes admit that it influence them to want to drink [or] smoke" ("Understanding the Impact").Using propaganda, the media sways teenagers into beliveing some behaviors are "cool" and "normal" to do. Advertisement can also cause an adolescent to demand materialistic objects that are not necessities, which can allow the parent to lose money. Media sites display multiple advertisements such as banner ads, demographic-based ads ect. , that influence buying tendencies of adolescents (O’Keefe and Clark-Pearson).
Another negative effect the media has on adolescents is their acedemics.According to Common Sense Media, teenagers who have television in their rooms perform worse in school compared to their peers. Being exposed to the media, at an extreme, can lower the child's acedemic fulfillment. "Teenagers who spend a lot of time watching [televison] have smaller vocabularies, lower test scores, and does not read very well" (Favre). The media not only affects teenagers psychologically, it can also affect them physically.
The media heavily promotes unhealthy food and can depress time for physical activities.According to Dominik Favre, the media can be linked to the growing epidemic of obesity in America. "Study showed that a person who watches more than two hours of TV a day is more likely to be obese in the future" (Favre). These effects do not happen right away, they form over time but they are effective. To prevent disturbance of the brain, parents have the permission to set limits for their child. Common Sense Media suggests that the child should not spend more than two hours in front of a screen (television, computer, movie, ect.
) each day.Julia Ransohoff, a pediatrician, recommends that the child should spend one minute doing a mental or physical activity for each minute they are exposed to the media. Pediatricians are in a unique position to educate families about both the complexities of the digital world and the challenging social issues that teenagers experience. By encouraging healthy use, parents can help teenagers balance how much they are exposed to the media. Clearly the media has a plethora of effects on adolescents, whether they are positive or negative.
