Media and Its Side Effects - Essay Example

Eric brings to our attention that advertisers know that if the children saw their advertisements and which are appealing to them, they will with no doubt nag their parents to get the products for them. Again, through the article, we find how advertisers have begun using catching songs and cartoon characters to attract children. Today’s young generation has changed tremendously through media especially through advertisements, as observed by Eric Schlosser’s essay, today even products that young children at their tender age, who are not allowed to access some products such as cigarettes, companies are still coming with ways of developing unique advertisements that are aimed at targeting the children. These companies intelligently achieve this by changing the packaging around these products and going a step further to ensure that they develop iconic symbols on these products so that the children will recognize them even in the future. This, they do putting in mind that even though the children will not necessarily access this at a young age they will with no doubt remember them from the same advertisements they saw years ago when they were still young.

Clearly, it is with no doubt that that media has more negatives than positive effects on today’s young people. As a matter of fact, it is my opinion that media has a tremendously negative effect on our young children (Johnson 2011). From the article “Television: The Plug-In Drug” by Marie Winn, we find that today, television has invaded most families both in known and unknown territories. This is characterized with wake up, going to school, watching television, and thereafter retiring to bed and this is the pattern in many families today. Almost every family today has a television set in their household and this has led many families dynamic to suffer. Watching television has clearly become the norm in almost every family today and this is leading to loss of touches such as the quality of sharing a meal together, going out on holiday, and vacations (Winn 457). Television has unknowingly eliminated most of the individuality enjoyed the aspect of families and has, in turn, managed to create a boring uniformity, which is experienced with all families that watch the television.

Television also affects how today’s children communicate with other people in society, it’s evident that a child who spends his/her all day indoors watching television will have difficulties in maintaining eye conducts, and even of great concern failure to maintain conversations and even trust the same people in the society.

I strongly believe that in today’s world the media is changing our young people, the family as a whole and even culture and more so education. As observed from Marie Winn’s article, television is invading many families; it is interfering with our today’s culture and eroding most of the family’s rituals in a faster way. Today television denies the families an opportunity to share their daily experiences and in return build their relationships, thus it is evident that today the quality of life is not at its optimum (Johnson 2011).

Clearly, it is in my own opinion that the prevalence of media in modern countries is an overall negative and a complete disgrace. Still focusing my attention on Marie Winn’s article, in my own opinion, I found the article to be wholly concentrated on how the television is changing today’s families and in actual base how it is pushing and breaking many families apart. In the article Ms. Winn brings to our attention many situations where many families are clearly proven to be more concern and interested to what is actually happening on the television screen than what is going In their family, in fact what is happening in the television handset is proving to be of higher priority than the family, this is both up surd and disgusting (Winn 458). Families are clearly spending less time together and much time on the television that they do not even recognize that their many families problem is arising from the television screen.

In conclusion, as discussed above the media in general has a negative impact on both the young generations and the families’ altogether, and the situation is getting from bad to worse and something as a matter of urgency need to be done over the same. Read More