How Media Affects the Brain and Body - Essay Example

According to research, it shows that the use of media may have an impact on the beliefs of the adolescents because it shapes their ways of thinking about issues of gender and sex. Moreover, media also has an impact on the way children’s brain and biology develops from the early stages. People have often underrated and overrated the impact that media has on the development of children. Americans for instance, must know that the recent shootings that have taken place in the countryare as a result of the impacts of media on their children. Additionally, the country is faced with other social problems such as obesity as well as pregnancy issues for the Americans teenagers that are indirectly contributed by themedia. The violent video games that children get exposed to at an early stage inn life is what leaves the behind the impact that finally reveals itself in them during their adolescents stages.

Apart from the videos, there are fat food commercials that run on the televisions and make children want to have a taste of the fast foods advertised on the televisions. The catastrophic long term effect is that the children will get addicted to the foods that will eventually result in obesity. However, it is not fair to state that the impacts that have been seen and already mentioned above cannot be entirely blamed on the media fraternity. There are some hidden factors that also play a role toward the uncultured behavior seen in a majority of the children and youths in America. The role that media has played in impacting children’s beliefs about certain issues such as their beliefs on gender and how they view themselves has always been underestimated. More often than not, people have given less attention on the effects that the media has played over the years in trying to shape the children’s views on certain aspects of life as well as their behavior patterns. Emerging evidence derived from research shows that the media as a whole- including music, internet and magazines are most likely to be the driving force behind shaping the mentality of not only children but humanity as a whole.

How media affects the brain and body

Children in America aged between eight and eighteen years are reported to be using media for at least eight hours each single day out of which they spend close to four hours on televisions (Roberts et al. 1999). As a result of the long hours that the children are spending while watching television, chances are very high that they easily fall into the obesity menace that is currently a major problem in America. Research reports indicate that there is a positive correlation between long hour’s exposure to televisions and obesity (Crespo et al., 2001). According to Dietz and Gortmaker (1985), they found out that indeed a positive relation existed between the time spent on watching televisions and obesity cases. The theory was based on three of their research that they conducted on youths who were aged between twelve and seventeen years. During the research, the other possible factors that could have had an impact or contributed towards obesity were all put under significant control.

Apart from the obesity problems, the media also does play a part in the development and growth of a child’s body. A new angle of viewing it by looking at the impact that media has had on the children’s brain. The content being televised on the stations may not matter as such but then again the exposure that the children are subjected to over that period will definitely have an impact in shaping their brains development. More often than not, it is the images that the children view on televisions that have an impact in shaping how the brains develop. Long hours exposure to televisions during the early stages of childhood have a destructive impact on the concentration levels and controlling of children when they get to around age seven (McCarty et al., 2004). It therefore means that if children spend most of their childhood on watching televisions, then chances are high that controlling such ids in the future may become a problem. It is likely that such kids will grow up having attention deficit problems and may even suffer from hyperactivity disorders as well as problems in brain functioning.

Ongoing research is still underway to determine if there is any correlation between the hormonal levels of an individual and the hours they are exposed to televisions and any specific form of media. Schultheiss and Stanton (2004) were able to demonstrate that indeed there was a relation between the hormonal changes and the arousal they got from the exposure they had on televisions. The conclusions made by the two individuals was based on the research that they conducted by exposing their participants to certain clips that were meant to arouse their feelings. The films were targeting the feeling of power and affiliation of the participants. The amounts of hormone levels from the participants were tested by taking samples from their saliva both before and after watching the clip. The results that were obtained from that particular set of participants were then compared to the control group of participants. According to the data that they collected, it indicated that their hormonal levels changed significantly even though the amount of changes witnessed varied from one gender to the next. Additionally, the changes varied depending on the experimental conditions. A similar control also showed that after watching a romantic clip, both men and women experienced significant changes in their progesterone levels. Men particularlyexperienced a lot of dampening on their testosterone as a result of watching the romantic movies. Based on the findings of the research, it is evident that exposure to certain contents of the media can indeed change the endocrine environment of mankind even if it is on a temporary basis.

Mimicry

Another impact that the media can have on children is the addictive problem of mimicking certain things and behavior patterns, which in most cases may become long term effect. Research that has been conducted in the recent years has shown that humanity; especially theyoung ones have a certain tendency of mimicking the behavior of the people they observed. For the case of children, they have the tendency of behaving in the same manner as the people whom they observed at their early stages of life. It is however not clear how the neurological process takes place so that a child mimics the behavior patterns of whomever people they get exposed to at certain stages in life. However, scientists believe that it is the ‘’mirror neurons’’ that are responsible towards the formation of behavior patterns in children who formtheir behavior patterns based on what they see.

Enactive Learning

It is important to know that desensitization does not take place in an independent manner from other learning processes in life but it combines with them during such occasions. For instance, children are constantly reinforced to form a certain behavior pattern that is learned from getting exposures to what they see on the televisions. A good example is the behavior pattern that is formed by children who get exposed to violent video games. By the time a child takes part in the video games, they not only become observers of what is going on in the violent video games but they also take part in such violent actions. During such times, what the children watches on the games become reinforced in them so that I becomes easy for the children to grow up being violent people. The long term effects is that the children may grow up knowing that violence is the only and maybe the best way of handling certain matters in life. It therefore means that exposure to such types of contents in the games they palsy could even have a catastrophic effect than some of the programs that they watch on televisions. There are chances that certain long term effects on the children may have not yet been established as a result of having long exposures to such violent games. There is therefore, a need for more research to be conducted so as to establish whether or not there are other negative effects of getting exposed to such violent games.

Away from the games that children paly, certain programs that are televised are more of fictitious than real. For instance, the violent programs that are aired on the televisions normally portray very violent actions than what exists in the real world. Such extreme violent programs may have negative contribution towards how the children grow and develop. It is possible that those children who get so much exposure to the violent contents may grow up knowing that the world is such a frightening place to stay. The impact even becomes worse in cases where the violence is portrayed as a more realistic kind of action. For instance, there are cases where there are thrillers or even the use of police procedurals that imitate what takes place in real life. There are also incidences when certain programs aired on the televisions depict real violence that is extreme as compared to that which takes place in real life.

Aggressive behavior

It has not yet been established whether there is a significant relation between the aggressive behavior patterns and the aggressive content that is watched on the media. It is also not yet proved as to whether or not children who get more exposure to violent media content actually become violent in real life as a result of that. However, there is a high chance that violent children may have drawn their behavior pattern from such exposures. Children who are aggressive in life may have drawn such behavior pattern from watching aggressive media content that programs their minds toward behaving in such a direction.

Sexual content

There has been a significant problem in the American media that over the years has preferred to air more sexualcontents than they should. According to the arguments put across by the children’s advocates, it shows that there has been an increasing in sexual contents from 1976 to 1998. The worse thing about these sexual contents is that they are aired during what could be considered as family hours of watching televisionin the evening. Evidence shows that by the year 1996, most children were exposed to atleast eight sexual references within an hour during such family hours. According to the research that was done by Rockwell and his team, it was established that mostly those who got affected were the adolescents. The young teenagers were found to be unable to make the correct moral judgments as a result of the sexual contents that they watched on the televisions (Crespo et al. 2001). However, there was a significant difference in those teenagers who got interventions and had discussions with their parents regarding sexual matters.

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Additionally, the changes varied depending on the experimental conditions. A similar control also showed that after watching a romantic clip, both men and women experienced significant changes in their progesterone levels. Men particularlyexperienced a lot of dampening on their testosterone as a result of watching the romantic movies. Based on the findings of the research, it is evident that exposure to certain contents of the media can indeed change the endocrine environment of mankind even if it is on a temporary basis.

Mimicry

Another impact that the media can have on children is the addictive problem of mimicking certain things and behavior patterns, which in most cases may become long term effect. Research that has been conducted in the recent years has shown that humanity; especially theyoung ones have a certain tendency of mimicking the behavior of the people they observed. For the case of children, they have the tendency of behaving in the same manner as the people whom they observed at their early stages of life. It is however not clear how the neurological process takes place so that a child mimics the behavior patterns of whomever people they get exposed to at certain stages in life. However, scientists believe that it is the ‘’mirror neurons’’ that are responsible towards the formation of behavior patterns in children who formtheir behavior patterns based on what they see.

Enactive Learning

It is important to know that desensitization does not take place in an independent manner from other learning processes in life but it combines with them during such occasions. For instance, children are constantly reinforced to form a certain behavior pattern that is learned from getting exposures to what they see on the televisions. A good example is the behavior pattern that is formed by children who get exposed to violent video games. By the time a child takes part in the video games, they not only become observers of what is going on in the violent video games but they also take part in such violent actions. During such times, what the children watches on the games become reinforced in them so that I becomes easy for the children to grow up being violent people. The long term effects is that the children may grow up knowing that violence is the only and maybe the best way of handling certain matters in life. It therefore means that exposure to such types of contents in the games they palsy could even have a catastrophic effect than some of the programs that they watch on televisions. There are chances that certain long term effects on the children may have not yet been established as a result of having long exposures to such violent games. There is therefore, a need for more research to be conducted so as to establish whether or not there are other negative effects of getting exposed to such violent games.

Away from the games that children paly, certain programs that are televised are more of fictitious than real. For instance, the violent programs that are aired on the televisions normally portray very violent actions than what exists in the real world. Such extreme violent programs may have negative contribution towards how the children grow and develop. It is possible that those children who get so much exposure to the violent contents may grow up knowing that the world is such a frightening place to stay. The impact even becomes worse in cases where the violence is portrayed as a more realistic kind of action. For instance, there are cases where there are thrillers or even the use of police procedurals that imitate what takes place in real life. There are also incidences when certain programs aired on the televisions depict real violence that is extreme as compared to that which takes place in real life.

Aggressive behavior

It has not yet been established whether there is a significant relation between the aggressive behavior patterns and the aggressive content that is watched on the media. Read More