Effects of Advertising to Children
Media is a significant part of our daily life, a vehicle for connecting to the general public as well as a way to obtain entertainment. Magazines, Tv set programs, radio, billboards, media, internet, cell phones are the forms of media which are considered to be part of our everyday routine. Traditionally, parents serve as primary social models for children; whereas other models can include siblings, teachers, family and other folks who are significant in children's lives. As time passes, however, parents' influence as models with their children is on the decrease as a direct or indirect consequence of technological advancement and alterations in household economics. Apart from their active schedules (which is common in dual-career and single-parent households), groups of today seem to gather around rarely because each member has quick access to his or her own television, mobile phone, computer, music player, etc. . This set-up would imply children are more inclined to interact less using their parents and spend more time on their own. Thus, children could change their attention using their company parents to more accessible diversions, such as tv set seeing. Without their parents' direct direction or control, such subjection can become excessive and unguarded. It would not be much of a surprise, if what these children watch did influence their thinking and habit. Studies conducted by Weiten & Lloyd reported that children in the U. S. spend 2-4 time on TV viewing alone which habit seems to increase as they grow older (Kirsh). Children and the children are media's darling. Multimedia as identified by children is full of excitement and marvel, since it brings these to a world of certainty as well as make imagine. A kid development expert T. Berry Brazelton, MD. , warns parents that, press is very "the biggest competitor for our children's heart and mind" (Steyer). Furthermore, Wayne P. Steyer an advocate for mass media company for children, in his book regards mass media as "the other parent" since at the moment time children spend much of their time with these different types of media. In view to the fact that our modern culture is advertising saturated, parents should become aware of the positive and negative effects of media to children.
Media's results are: First, its academic learning opportunities. "Within the last 30 years, shows such as Sesame Neighborhood, Teletubbies, Barney, and Blue's Signs have provided educational learning to toddlers and pre-aged children. For teenagers, programs such as Move, Cyberchase, and Zoboomafoo are replete with educational, clinical facts. For pre-teens and teens, cable channels like the Animal Globe, The Discovery Channel, and THE TRAINING Channel offer a wide range of educational fare"(Kirsh). Children that are exposed to educational programs are more likely to adopt from what they are observing, to cite a good example children(toddlers) from a non-english speaking country that are expose to shows like Barney have the ability to figure out how to speak English although with inappropriate grammar. They learn to talk to the English dialect and by the time they attend school learning grammar will be easier to them. The same is true with older children, programs shown in the National Geographic Channel, THE PET Planet and Breakthrough Channel and articles written in their released newspaper as well as their websites help them to learn and see just what a certain animal looks like, see and explore places that are impossible for human being to visit and visit places that are overseas. These educational programs help them to visualize places and pets as well as further describe ideas that are learned in the class.
The second positive aftereffect of press is pro-social patterns learning. "Pro-social tendencies identifies any action that benefits another person. Comforting, writing, and helping are types of pro-social activities" (Kirsh). Many develop mentalists, especially those leaning towards the tradition of Social-Cognitive perspective; argue that a lot of the changes in children's behavior may be accounted for by their observation of others. Learning through imitation or more commonly known as Observational Learning, occurs whenever a child observes and eventually imitates a model's behavior. Programs made for pro social habit learning shows children to apply social patterns such as posting, aiding when they themselves interact socially. They are thought how to properly react to problems came across in the exterior world like in school or in the community. For example a kid who pieces how kids discuss skill materials in completing a job in Sesame Neighborhood will the same manner share his crayons to a classmate when he attend school. To further describe this impression, a study conducted by Mares in 1986 "claim that the viewing of pro communal television content can increase positive connections among youth during play and increase altruism" (Kirsh). On the other hand, although pro sociable programs are designed to teach pro public behavior age the viewer should be considered because children of youthful age are usually more versatile to such coaching than older children.
Despite the positive effects presented mass media has unwanted effects as well. Children's familiarity with these marketing models could lead them to pick up new behaviors that aren't modeled by their own parents such as: First, body image and eating disorder problems. Based on the Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorder company (ANRED), more than half of teenage young ladies are on diets or think they should be (Tomeo). TV programs and mags that show young ladies that are thin even though unintentional girls tend to duplicate their favorite personality. In their aim for to get thin they put themselves to diet, at times they force themselves never to eat to get slim. "On average, girls begin diets at the age of eight, and eighty-one percent of ten-year-olds dread becoming excessive fat. A national eating disorder treatment center in 2006 reported that sixty-three percent of elementary school teachers are worried about eating disorders in their classroom. From where do these young ladies get such a poor home image" (Tomeo). Sadly, mass media most frequently foster negative affective body images among youth (Kirsh). Evidently, models aren't limited to real people; super heroes, toon or video game characters, even tv set or movie idols, can also provide as symbolic or multimedia models in cases like this.
The second negative aftereffect of advertising is the introduction to drug use. Advertisements give excitement to young viewers because they are entertaining, however the injury it brings to the young thoughts of children is often forgotten. The youth being exposed in a world surrounded with press, are therefore subjected to adult aimed advertising like commercials of smokes and liquor. Matching to an organization that studies medical issues, in 1999 the Henry J. Kaiser Family Base concluded that the common child between age group eight to 18 spends more than 40 time using television, radio, billboards and the internet wherein advertising occupies most of the time ("Youth-Oriented Advertising"). Furthermore, it is a fact regarding to Gerbner that lots of of the adult oriented advertisements are purposely made to be attractive to the children (Kirsh, p. 337). Take smoking for illustration; advertisements of cigarette infuse interest to the young ones just as that movies and music videos that contain characters that smoke predispose these to do the same. Additionally, ads contribute to problems such as over weight, alcohol mistreatment and young smoking ("Youth-Oriented Advertising").
To summarize, the discussion disclosed that besides from parents and significant people who are exposed to the kid, symbolic characters can also be potent models. Taking into consideration the existence of factors that have a pervasive impact on the child's imitative behavior, the television can be a powerful agent of socialization. Despite its negative effects, however, TV browsing can also have constructive effects on children. Under proper supervision and if viewing is done in moderation, individuals, particularly parents can harness, and even take full advantage of this medium's potential as a good way to obtain information and helpful avenue for learning.
