Is the Media Destroying Our Children?

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gmc
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Is the Media Destroying Our Children?

Post by gmc »

Children used to follow the examples that their parents and other adult leaders set


No they didn't, the same debate went on in the sixties, seventies, eighties (I feel old)

you can even find such discussions in Roman times , medeival pick an age. Growing up was always stressful, trying to fit in not fall out with parents. Do you still take fashion tips from your dad? Did you ever?
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capt_buzzard
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Is the Media Destroying Our Children?

Post by capt_buzzard »

I think its up to the parents to set some example. Yes I don't like to see the kids acting all grown up. They don't want to be children anymore. And they are allowed to do what they like. Sleep over,were makeup and dress as they want. Then comes the rest,eat junk food and even drink alcohol,do drugs ect. These advertisements implies that no teenager can go through adolescence without experimenting. 'Hey Man Live a Little'

The advertisement firms is somewhat to blame here. We see them on bill posters,tv and now the internet. This new liberal way of doing things has to end,for all our children sake.
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Bill Sikes
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Post by Bill Sikes »

capt_buzzard wrote: I think its up to the parents to set some example. Yes I don't like to see the kids acting all grown up. They don't want to be children anymore. And they are allowed to do what they like. Sleep over,were makeup and dress as they want. Then comes the rest,eat junk food and even drink alcohol ect.

The advertisement firms is somewhat to blame here. We see them on bill posters,tv and now the internet.


Set an example, OK - to have some control, too, IMO, I guess that's what you're

saying above. A relative of mine has a daughter of 13, who is out all over the

place at many unsuitable times. A few months ago she had to be bought home,

dead drunk (that is, incapable). Disgraceful. This otherwise-reasonable mother

has I guess been far too lax. There have been other problems. I'm just hoping

that there'll be a backlash when these youngsters grow up, and a return to

better values. I wouldn't bet on it, though. It looks to me as though the zenith

of civilisation (as we know it) was reached some decades ago.
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capt_buzzard
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Is the Media Destroying Our Children?

Post by capt_buzzard »

gmc wrote: No they didn't, the same debate went on in the sixties, seventies, eighties (I feel old)

you can even find such discussions in Roman times , medeival pick an age. Growing up was always stressful, trying to fit in not fall out with parents. Do you still take fashion tips from your dad? Did you ever?


What's OLD?
gmc
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Is the Media Destroying Our Children?

Post by gmc »

I was'nt lashing out I was disagreeing with you I'm sorry if you took it that way. I am not the least bit interested in a flame war of any kind whatsoever

The media has even gotten to you. At what part in my post did I say "children used to take fashion tips from their dads"?


None at all it was an attempt at humour to make a point. Mainly that every generation has always said the same kind of thing of their children and when their children grow up and have kids the same problems occur. Go back in time and you will see exactly the same things being said about every generation.

Rock and roll used to be the devil's music and adults worried about the effect on teenagers because it encouraged promiscuity, now you get christian rock channels and ageing rockers worry about the influence of westlife and britney speirs and the lack of decent pop music. Elvis is now an iconic figure yet he used to be banned as too risque and condemned for playing black music

You knock the influence of TV yet because of it children are growing up with a greater understanding of the world beyond their immediate environment. When they had band aid in the eighties it put the establishment to shame because children started asking why can't something be done. Now as adults they still question and don't accept what they are told or see on TV as necessarily being true.

Computers add a new dimension. You and I are at opposite ends of the earth, ten years ago we would not be doing this, twenty years ago the computers we are using would have needed a house to hold all the bits. Yet you now sit and discuss these things with a total stranger form a different cultural background that spells the same word differently and think nothing of it.

Parents pass on values yes but they also pass on bigotry and prejudice. I happen to live in an area where sectarianism is still rife in some areas but it is the adults that perpetuate it and the younger generation that is rejecting it wholesale because they just don't see the point and their world is no longer confined to their immediate area and its petty worries. Rejecting parental values? yes they are.

How about the civil rights movement in America and the bigotry of the time? Is racial stereotyping and hatred a value worth passing on? Yet people use the bible to justify hatred and intolerance just as much as it is used to teach tolerance and understanding.

The influence of the media is both good and bad at least you don't get riots at britney speirs gigs remember the punk years? I used to share a flat with a punk band, (they were crap by the way) going out with them was an experience, total strangers would come up and try to pick a fight because of the way they were dressed, the violence tended to come from the older adults not kids the same age.

How about rock and roll or the hippy years? I tend to suspect that those most voluble about a rebelling youth are really complaining because their authority is being questioned. Religious leaders of all religons lament the lack of attendance and want the social sanctions back that they used to have.

you'll see that I was refering to parents and adult leaders passing on values, lessons, and morals to children.


I did see your point, and tell me did you accept everything your parents told you without questioning? (hence the crack about fashion tips, your initial poiunt was about the way girls were dressing, my own used to complain about jeans and shoulder length hair)

It is an issue with many sides to it and seeing things in black and white (and I'm not suggesting you do) does nothing to help.

On the other hand I do see your point about half naked thirteen year olds though as a fifteen year old boy I would probably think it was great which is probably what the thirteen year old girls want them to think without really understanding why. I'm not a parent but if I was I wouldn't let a daughter of mine away with it.

That's the point though isn't it. It's not TV or the media to blame. I don't know about the US but in the UK we have a device to control what children watch. It is called an off button.

I agree with you up to a point about the influence of the mass media but overall I think the influence is for the good in encouraging a more pluralist society and greater understanding. There is nothing new about what is happening just variations on a theme.
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capt_buzzard
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Is the Media Destroying Our Children?

Post by capt_buzzard »

Its Ok Gmc, Who's Old bit was just a joke of mine.



Yes I agree re the off botton. But many kids today now have their own Tv's in their bedrooms + computers.
gmc
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Is the Media Destroying Our Children?

Post by gmc »

Its Ok Gmc, Who's Old bit was just a joke of mine.


No offence taken

I'm one of the lost generation post hippy and pre punk. I remember much the same kind of debates when I was a teenager, never did find the free love everybody was talking about :(
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capt_buzzard
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Post by capt_buzzard »

LOL, I wore flowers in my hair, Why some mates told me I looked like JC himself.

Never got to Woodstock,but we did get to Hyde Park in London. We sang Peace songs in those days, and marched too against the Bomb. But is was a fun time too. We did not go tearing up London town,smashing windows like the kids today.
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capt_buzzard
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Post by capt_buzzard »

jwolf7722 wrote: it all comes down to the parents.


Their teachers are scared to even go into some classroms today.
gmc
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Post by gmc »

"dropping out" i always thought was a middle class thing. You can only drop out if you have money or rach parents that can bail you out if you get in to trouble.

Personally I was unemployed for the better part of two years, not the kind of dropping out that was enjoyable.
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Post by Serenity »

That's assuming that society still genuinely expects the up coming generation to take over the world.....in a world of such short mindedness as of today....we're not meant to exercise the degrees of providence that we once were.

As a parent....you've little influence over your child being strict, OR being lax....it doesn't really matter. Society's design is to remove children from the teachings of their parents.....should there be an ounce of real world education to be learned from them.

There's to much conformatism today, that without constant updating of the "times"- fashion, etc.....you're ostracized (sp?) if you're not keeping up with the jones'.

At the moment, to a larger degree...what's offered to people in everyday life, is enough to be overwhelmed with, and therefore a real lack of time to figure out the "bigger picture" is available. You're up to your neck in homework/payin payments on whatever you got to help you escape from the reality that you work to live and live to work.

I'm pretty sure the generation of kids born from 80- 90 with be the biggest upcoming capitalist group you'll hear of......to the point where the capitalist ceiling will support no more "venture capitalists" and society's values will shift.....with a clear in-your-face understanding that "having" isn't more important as "helping", we'll likely reform a working-communistic ideoligy.

hope that all made sense...if not, use your imagination ;)
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Peg
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Is the Media Destroying Our Children?

Post by Peg »

My question is, how many of us that are giving our opinion, have children? I have found, it is most often the ones without children, who feel they have the most to offer on child rearing. If I knew then, what I know now :rolleyes:
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Post by gmc »

I must apologize if I seemed a little pissy before, I was tired and decided to take out a little frustration I was feeling that day by attempting to shove my point of view down your throat. This was wrong of me. Forums are based around disagreements and discussions, and it seems that I forgot that. I am sorry.


No problem gathered it was something like that. I find in these posts that the written word doesn't always put across the way a comment is intended. Something said with a grin seems offensive when you look at the words without the body language.

I have also found that some americans really do not get irony and take what is intended as a humorous crack literally.

My question is, how many of us that are giving our opinion, have children? I have found, it is most often the ones without children, who feel they have the most to offer on child rearing. If I knew then, what I know now


Very true, I have no kids of my own, would offer observations if asked but other than that be very careful to keep my mouth shut. Sometimes parents are too close to the problem, kids rebel want to go their own way I think sometimes you have to stand back and let them make their own stupid mistakes. But that is just an observation on my part.
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Post by Peg »

That is so true about standing back and letting them make their own stupid mistakes. I really have a problem doing that. Yet, someday they will be on their own and will make a lot of bad choices along the way, so I am getting at least a little better at it. Some kids, I don't care how great the parent, will consistantly make bad decisions. I've seen many cases with my kids friends, where one child is good and the other terrible. Sometimes I wonder if it's due to a chemical imbalance or what.
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Post by capt_buzzard »

gmc wrote: No offence taken

I'm one of the lost generation post hippy and pre punk. I remember much the same kind of debates when I was a teenager, never did find the free love everybody was talking about :(


Where were you? I got some. The good old day's. Memories now. :-6
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Post by gmc »

Where were you? I got some. The good old day's. Memories now.


Small scots town with not much money. No mods and rockers all the kids could afford were mopeds which never quite had the right image somehow. Presbytarian upbringing I was so worried about doing the right thing by the time I was old enough the swinging sicties had passed by.
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Post by Suresh Gupta »

burntandbleeding wrote: Children used to follow the examples that their parents and other adult leaders set. But now it seems that they are getting all their advice from Cosmo and MTV. How can we expect this next generation to take over the world when they have yet to see the difference between real life and TV?


It is right that children used to follow the examples that their parents and other adult leaders set, but are they now setting any proper examples? Why to blame TV and other things for the moral decline? The primary responsibility rests with parents and they are failing the youngsters.
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Post by gmc »

Parents also set examples of intolerance and prejudice. Just take a look at the continuance of sectarianism, racism homo bashing whatever. personally I think society now is a lot more tolerant than it was in the past. There is not more bullying or child abuse than in the past but people now speak out when before it would be ignored or not believed.

Through TV, radio science programmes etc children have a better understanding of the world about them and appreciate how connected everything is.

Societal strictures were not always and are not always good. One generation succeeds the next and picks up and learns from the mistakes of the past. They have to take over whether you like it or not.
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Post by Suresh Gupta »

gmc wrote: Parents also set examples of intolerance and prejudice..... Through TV, radio science programmes etc children have a better understanding of the world about them and appreciate how connected everything is. Societal strictures were not always and are not always good. One generation succeeds the next and picks up and learns from the mistakes of the past. They have to take over whether you like it or not.


Younger generation will certainly takeover whether one likes it or not. What they will get will depend on what elders will leave for them, a moral society or an immoral society. If elders want to protect their children from media or anything else, they will have to put their own house in order and set examples of moral behaviour. If they behave with intolerance and prejudice how can they expect their children to be tolerant and unprejidiced?
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Peg
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Post by Peg »

Extremely well said b and b :yh_flower
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Suresh Gupta
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Post by Suresh Gupta »

[QUOTE=burntandbleeding]It's hard to remember that our children are not clay sculptures for us to mold as we please, they are individuals from the moment they take their first breath. All we can do is try our best to teach them the things that we know can help them and never give up,....... To all the parents who sacrifice their own happiness and comforts for the sake of their children, I salute you./QUOTE]

Very nicely put. Parents should discharge their duty to the best of their ability to make their children better human beings, an asset for society and not a liability on it. They should create examples of good behaviour not merely lecture on it. The unspoken message of an example is the gretest of all motivations.
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Post by Suresh Gupta »

Robin wrote: I do not believe the media is "destroying" our children. I do believe the media goes to the extreme in reporting the news. I believe it is the media's responsibility to do a job - report and keep everyone informed as to what is going in in our nation and the world. How they choose to accomplish this task is another story. I think it is important for newscasters to remember who their audience is and how what they say and do will impact those listening and / or watching the broadcast.

It is also the responsibility of the parents to offer additional explanations to their children for the events that are taking place around them. If they are scared or confused by what they hear and see, they should be able to talk about it openly with their parents, a teacher or someone in role model position.

In summary, I don't think the media is hurting our children anymore than the programs, movies and music that is also made available to them on a daily basis!


Thanks Robin. You have put it up very nicely. Blaming media for all ills will be hiding our failure to act as responsible parent. But I will also include that media has a social responsibility and it should restrain itself while reporting news. Self discipline is the key.
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