People have been saying for years that too much television is bad for anyone's health. Well, Time magazine spoke with James Steyer from Stanford University, and his studies suggest that children are at risk. His study suggested that the more media a child is exposed to such as TV, movies, cellphone, or magazines, the more health risks they face. He suggested that they are more likely to smoke, drink, use drugs, or receive low grades in school. Out of thousands of studies, 173 were selected that had the highest results of poor behavior from too much media exposure. The areas graded the highest were obesity, drug use, and sexual behavior. The article also mentioned how the parents need to be more involved in what their kids are watching on TV. The average kid spends about 7 hours in front of some sort of media each day. That is a large amount of exposure, so it should be the responsibility of the parents to limit the amount of time in front of TV. They should also be aware of what their kids are watching for programs, and maybe ban certain shows.
This article discusses some great points that everyone should be aware of. When children are not performing well in the classroom and getting into trouble with drugs or alcohol because of media; that is an issue. I understand the media are filled with inappropriate things for children, but where are the parents? If they are responsible, they should be more interested in what their kids are watching on TV, and to set limits on the amount of time they spend with the media. If more parents were responsible, children could enjoy the media in a positive way, like it was intended.
Its really too bad that negative affects on children are coming out of the media. The problem is that media is consuming us and our lives, to a point where it is getting unhealthy. When children are experiencing terrible behavior due to media exposure, theres a problem. Pretty soon no generation will be safe and the media will just continually become more powerful. It is the job of the parents to monitor their child's media exposure. My parents did that when I was growing up, I had limits on how much television I was allowed to watch. That kind of lifestyle worked for me and it would probably work for most families as well. We want the media to be a great tool and something to enjoy; not to consume our society completely.
See also: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1864141,00.html
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It's hard for me to accept these kinds of studies. I can accept that media might be a contributing factor to some unhealthy behaviors, but in the absence of any details about how a person uses the media, how can we assume that all media effects will be the same? Is one person's 7 hours of media use identical to every other person's 7 hours? Don't we have to distinguish between a kid who spends 7 hours reading great works of world literature (books) and a kid who spends 7 hours listening to death metal while he plays Grand Theft Auto? Or are those kids equally likely to be fat, sex-crazed, drug addicts?
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