Friday, October 10, 2008 Speak Out: The effect of media on the behavior of children
ROLE models in today's society greatly affect how most people behave or live their lives. With the obvious rapid changes occurring in our world, we sometimes take for granted the small details happening, especially in our children.
When children are taught how to tie their shoes, it's because of how their parents showed them. When children are taught how to do math problems or science projects, it's because of how their teachers showed them. So with these, some of the role models, how can it be that there is still violence, there are still cases of teenage pregnancies?
One reason is because children learn from what they see. And this is where television, one form of media, comes into the scene.
We live in a society which praises individuality and freedom, and to most people, they don't believe that media has an effect on them. Undoubtedly, media affects our lives -- our actions, thoughts and decisions in general. This is especially true to children.
It is a common knowledge that children are very impressionable. And their parents, teachers and other people they meet, almost always have a huge impact in their lives.
But children do not stay in school all the time and today, where both parents are working, children have nothing else to occupy their time except for the media, the television for example.
Nowadays, children know more than what was taught to us in our elementary and high school days. The type of clothing that they wear and the kind of way they speak and talk and also act is different.
Today, you can hear stories about a child killing another child, younger girls becoming pregnant, and other related incidents. But, no matter how greatly these things affect our today's generation, we cannot attribute all of them to television media or what they see in movies. What children greatly need these days, more than ever, is their parents' affection and attention.
Let's not simply leave to their teachers in school solely the responsibility of what they need to learn. Foremost, we as parents, should be their role models.
Lizette M. Anicete
Principal I
Wenceslao Elementary School
Lubao East District
