Effects of Media on Children Today

For over thousands of children today, the media has gained the power to become the other parent. It is clear that media such as televisions, video games, movies, and cartoons have an impact on our children's lives. There are positive and negative effects the media can have on your child and how they look at the world. Although it may be hard to completely get rid of the negative effects, there are ways in which you can maximize the positive effects of the media.

Some people may think that the media has a completely negative effect on children and there is no positive effect what so ever. What they don't realize is that exposing your children to the safe and nonviolent forms of media will benefit them in the long run. For example, one of the positive forms of media is educational television. By watching educational TV, children at every age learn so many things. Infants and toddlers start learning different words, objects and their meanings. Math puzzles and many other activities enhance children's decision power and mental abilities. Baby TV is very popular now a day's among children. Research found that educational television programs, such as "Sesame Street" and "Mister Rogers", can aid in the gaining of general knowledge plus improve overall cognitive knowledge among young children. Studies show that children who watched educational programs as preschoolers, such as "Sesame Street", had higher grades, and read more books. Also, by watching different programs and cartoons, children become more creative. Television offers a child more opportunities to express himself/herself. They get new ideas from cartoons and TV shows to show their talents. Television shows like "How Stuff Works", for example, satisfy a child's curious mind and expand their knowledge about the things around them. Another positive effect of media is that infants, toddlers and preschoolers learn so many things from cartoons like "Baby Looney Tunes", and "Calliou". By watching these cartoons they start learning different symbols, words and many gestures. They also learn good things like sharing, caring about friends, keeping their surroundings clean, and doing their duties (like homework). For example, in "Baby Looney Tunes", where there are some children in a daycare and "Granny" looks after them, she encourages them to do good and also rewards them when they do so. Similarly, when someone does a bad thing like lying, Granny tells that 'baby' in a kind way that what he has done is wrong and sometimes even punishes him by not giving him desert after dinner to make him understand. This helps a child understand that he/she must do the right thing to be a "good child". There are many more positive effects of media on children, but there are also negative ones too.

Children's exposure to electronic media such as television, video games, the Internet, and music has undoubtedly grown in the past few years. More than 100 studies have shown a causal relationship between exposure to violence on television and aggressive behavior in children. Other research points to possible relationships between children's media consumption and obesity, smoking, increased isolation, decreased academic achievement, and exposure to gender and racial stereotypes. Numerous studies have found that many parents do not