Media's Impact on Youth

Reliving childhood can be fun. It can also be hard.

Media can be positive. It can also be negative.

And COMM123A has taught me that it’s okay to be a combination of both.

I have gained a lot of new perspectives on the intricate relationship between youth and media through our class. Kids today, even though I like to believe that I am not much older than them, are growing up in an environment that was different than mine. That’s a plain and simple fact. The digital media world is literally at our fingertips 24/7. And just because kids have smaller fingertips doesn’t mean this world isn’t as equally, or even more, media-driven.

http://www.theintentionallife.com/social-media-modesty/

Kids are smart, intuitive, creative, and curious. This makes them naturals in the realm of media. However, it also makes them vulnerable. And these vulnerabilities change based on the audience since babies, preschoolers, kids, tweens, and teens are all at different developmental stages cognitively and socially. Our final projects for this course have investigated common public concerns on the negative impacts from media use and exposure, including violence; aggression; risky behaviors involving sex, alcohol, and drugs; depression; self-esteem; and body image. My classmates came up with a great range of how to alleviate these concerns through a variety of platforms, including in-school activities/programs, screen-free days, and positive social media presences on blogs, Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram. So yes, media can have clear harmful effects on kids’ attitudes and behavior. BUT we can use media in similar popular ways to redirect their attention to positive, healthy, inspirational, community-oriented, and kid-friendly messages.

This summer, I will be working at a camp with kids entering grades six thru eight. I have done this the past three years but I am entering this season with a new outlook into their lives. We have always been a place where kids can come to unplug, play outdoors, and socially interact with friends and peers. I now realize just how important that really is. Similarly, I’m excited to talk to them more about their own media experiences and habits because they are always gushing about finding the coolest Vines, attending the annual summer VidCon, singing the latest pop song, or watching the hit summer movies. Thanks to this course, I have more of a background to investigate the media messages today’s kids are receiving and to observe how those messages are being played out in the everyday lives of my summer camp kids. And because middle school kids are at a real crossroads in terms of identity formation, I hope to be a role model to shape them into future teenagers and adults who, like me, can appreciate and analyze media for its good sides and bad sides…for its halos and its horns.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/91249959/little-angel-and-little-devil-wings

Music and film each have so much to offer in terms of lyrics and dialogue, artists and actors, and genres. Yet it seems that most content for youth, or rather the content that is popular among youth, is pretty cookie-cutter.

With music, it is usually pop music pretending to be a little hip-hop by an extremely attractive artists who sings about his/her crazy yet enviable love life.

The results from the 2014 Teen Choice Awards seem to provide clear proof of this. The female artist winner was Ariana Grande, beating out Beyoncé, Miley Cyrus, Lorde, Katy Perry, and Taylor Swift. Ed Sheeran topped Jason Derulo, Pharrell Williams, Pitbull, Austin Mahone, and Justin Timberlake for the male artist of the year.

http://press.atlanticrecords.com/ed-sheeran/

Tweens and teens, like the majority of music audiences, are attracted to artists who fit the standard. Sheeran may be the one and only exception, with his unruly red hair, funky tattoo arm sleeves, ginger scruffy beard, pale skin, and lack of a six pack. Just look at who he was pitted against – all attractive, sexualized, romantic, mysterious, likeable dudes. And then look at the insanity of One Direction, who won for best group, best group single and best break-up song with “Story of My Life,” best love song with “You & I,” and best summer tour. 5 Seconds of Summer is another typical breakout boy band that is providing some competition to 1D.

http://www.ryanseacrest.com/2014/04/28/listen-to-ariana-grandes-problem-featuring-iggy-azalea/

Female artists are arguably even more attractive, sexualized, and romantic than their male counterparts. Each of the six females up for the top award seem flawlessly beautiful with hair, makeup, and body figures that place an unrealistic ideal upon their fans and listeners.

KIDZ BOP is an extremely interesting facet of the kid-targeted music industry to analyze. Since 2001, they have released albums featuring kids performing popular songs with surprising success, and the 28^th album is set to drop later this month. The cool quality of KIDZ BOP is their commitment to making these contemporary songs more kid-friendly by editing out cursing or dirty lyrics about sex, drugs, etc. For example, here’s how they changed Bruno Mars’ “It Will Rain”…

BRUNO: Leave some morphine at my door / Cause it would take a whole lot of medication…There’s no religion that could save me

KIDZ BOP: Leave our memories at my door / Cause it would take a whole lot of remembering…There’s no decision that could save me

http://kicks105.com/events-lufkin/kidz-bop-concert-in-nacogdoches-at-the-hotel-fredonia-on-september-7/07-september-2013-hotel-fredonia/

Sometimes it’s quite a stretch though, and I don’t think that anyone past age 10 would willingly listen to KIDZ BOP instead of the real thing. Also, some songs were never made for kids. Take Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” or Macklemore’s “Thriftshop.” KIDZ BOP may be trying too hard by making this a kid-accessible territory when it just shouldn’t be. And plus, look how “perfect” and stylish these teeny-boppers also look…is it always about the image?

Analyses of films are different because target audiences seem to be more narrowed. For example, The SpongeBob Movie is obviously kid-friendly though it still perpetuates the coolness of certain behaviors and attitudes, like the female bikini body or the male muscular ideal. These messages are present in content for older kids too, like Into the Woods, Jupiter Ascending, and The Duff which tend to show people as objects, have beautiful actors who are often too physically mature for their supposed character, have crude language, show violence as normative, and glorify drinking/partying. (I wish I had room to write an entire analysis on just The Duff alone!)

http://www.cultofmac.com/298143/jupiter-ascending-trailer-sci-fi-can-handle/

That’s where Common Sense Media can don its superhero costume and come to the rescue! They have suggestions and informative reviews for parents on music and films that are age-appropriate and still popular. My favorite music section (which needs a lot more improvement though) was for best teen or tween music with a message, which included Arcade Fire’s Reflektor (recommended age 12) and Lorde’s Pure Heroine (age 13). Another great tab is for new kids’ movies, which included McFarland, USA (age 10), The SpongeBob Movie (age 6), and The Duff (age 13).

This issue spans the entire music and film industry, not just the songs or videos created for youth. Because these are usually so universal and applicable to all ages, it’s hard to even pinpoint target audiences sometimes. But artists, actors, and producers need to be aware that kids will be exposed to these messages and depictions that can have negative impacts on young viewers’ behaviors and attitudes, including aggression, violence, risk-taking (like sex or drugs), prejudice, gender norms, self-esteem, and body image.

Our recent in-class assignment forced us to look at our local media from a critical perspective.  We investigated the FCC 398 Reports from several San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland-area commercial TV stations. We were asked to put on the FCC lens and evaluate the extent to which these stations follow a) the Children’s Television Act (CTA) legal requirements and b) the CTA’s spirit.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2011/10/kron-tv-looks-to-sell-san-francisco-hq.html

I analyzed KRON, a MyNetwork TV-affiliated station in San Francisco. Based on the report from quarter 4 of 2014, they did abide by the CTA rules. They provided the minimum of 3 hours of core educational/informational (e/i) programming and pre-empted all of 12 their shows which had to be rescheduled due to outside factors. But do they really abide by the spirit of the law? Debatable.

The most interesting take-away from our station is that every single program (and there were 15 different ones!) listed their target audience as 13-16 year olds. However, after reading the descriptions of many of them, we concluded that no teen we know would actually watch these. In fact, we thought most of our shows such as Animal Exploration, Jack Hanna’s Animal Adventures, and Bay Area Quiz Kids would be best suited for 6-9 year olds or maybe 10-12 year olds depending on the content and the interest levels. The most common show theme for us was cognitive-intellectual, which we applaud KRON for doing because a majority of e/i programming currently seems to address the socio-emotional theme instead. I appreciated how their shows were kid-tailored topics like animal facts, quiz shows, and news shows.  I would be interested to further explore Teen Kids News specifically, because it is a great concept of a new program for teens by teens, and it reflects back on a media need we discussed earlier this quarter regarding the lack of children’s voices in programming.

http://www.teenkidsnews.tv/

I think our children are served adequately well in our market but there is still a lot of room for improvement. The visual calendar grid that we created using post-it notes really exemplified the areas of growth. Firstly, most of the shows across the stations were unrealistically targeted to 13-16 year olds, which is obviously a strategy to avoid the advertising regulations for kids programs 12 years and younger. Secondly, most of the shows were heavily concentrated on weekends, especially Saturday mornings 7-10am. Our KRON station had NO programs Monday thru Friday. This is problematic because a) many kids within that older adolescence range do not wake up that early and b) the program options at times when they are most likely TO watch are rare. Hardly anything is offered during weekdays, although we understand this is likely for financial reasons. Thirdly, there needs to be more programming directed to the younger audience, specifically the 2-5 year old preschool range. Although PBS does an excellent job with this spectrum, it should not completely eliminate the competition for these viewers. Other stations should feel inspired to create other e/i alternatives for their own stations to give kids more variety and choice.

It is impossible to shop at Target without noticing those smiling, familiar, colorful, media-created characters sprinkled throughout the store. I had always been aware that children’s lives were commercialized but I had never considered how prevalent it actually is, until I browsed the Target kids clothes, games, and food and could literally not walk five feet without having a media tie-in product next to me.

This reality of media tie-ins for children is very purpose-driven. Children consume media so much in their everyday lives through television, internet, social media, tablets, phones and more that it only makes sense that advertisers and marketers would try hard to place their creations in non-media facilitated products like clothes, books, toys, games, and food. The Consuming Kids video discussed that the commercialization of children has grown since deregulation in the 1980s, giving media companies, networks, and producers basically free reign over child marketing strategies and practices. Kids are three markets in one: they have spending power with their own money, they have influencing power over what their parents buy, and they have the appeal of a future market as consumers for life. This explains the reason kids media is so heavily commercialized since, in our capitalist society, it is all about the money. More profits come from more products, so marketers are constantly thinking of ways to make their characters accessible through non-media outlets. Is this ethical?

As long as the characters are positive role models, I don’t find too much fault with this practice in terms of games and clothes. I have some concern that it creates a marketplace so saturated with familiar characters that it is impossible to make kids happy or satisfied with unfamiliar, new, non-media related characters. It could hinder independent game makers or toy companies since they don’t have that all-important character appeal like those of SpongeBob, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Disney Princesses…the list goes on. I worry that really good, beneficial (maybe even educational?) products are being overlooked. I must mention that I was actually glad to see Leapfrog Learning games featuring Monsters University, Cars, Dora the Explorer, and Sofia the First because it is using the characters to draw in educational content. My other issue with this commercialization is using kid-adored characters on foods that are not the healthiest – I noticed mac and cheese, cereal, fruit snacks, and yogurts that employed this technique. This isn’t 100% of the time: Annie’s, an organic and higher-end food company, had a mac and cheese with the Arthur shapes, and a pack of gala apples used Spiderman to encourage kids to “snack like a super hero!” In general, though, kids will automatically notice and reach for those foods even though there are healthier, more natural, less sugary options available that parents may not even be aware of.

This strategy works because kids love what is familiar. They develop trusting, emotional, positive relationships with these fictitious animals and people. This loyalty entices kids to incorporate their favorites into other aspects of their lives so they can constantly feel connected with them. Yes, I rolled my eyes when I saw kids’ character underwear, but then I realized that I was one of those kids! I definitely see that children’s culture is commercialized but it is no worse than a decade ago when I was a child. From birthday party decorations to swim trunks to backpacks to scooters, yes, media tie-ins are present. And yes, I have a concern that this marketing strategy is creating too much consumerism and an “I want” attitude in kids. But I am also of the perspective that a child drawn to Jake the Pirate, Hello Kitty, or Olaf isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

For this week, I picked two apps from the Apple App store that fell under the category of kids ages 6-8. The cool thing I learned right off the bat is that the app store has a huge selection of different categories to divide their content, and the kids category under “Top Charts” is further subdivided by age (5 & under, 6-8, and 9-11) and by paid, free, or top-grossing.

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2015/02/12/dr-pandas-restaurant-2-is-app-stores-new-free-app-of-the-week/

Dr. Panda’s Restaurant 2 was number 1 on the free chart. The graphics are very bright and bold and almost look 3D. The premise is that you are the panda chef who cooks meals for his animal friends. First, I cooked pasta, which included dumping the pasta into the pot, stirring, draining, and plating. Next, I was given choices of add-ons, and when I touched each one, the hippo outside the window either shook his head yes or no for approval or disapproval. From that, I gathered an egg, a purple eggplant, and a lemon. Then we went back to the kitchen and I had to choose how to cook these. At first I put the eggplant on the stove just to see what would happen. Usually a check box appears when you have correctly prepared the food and that didn’t occur. I switched out the eggplant for the egg, put the eggplant in the stove, and pulsed the lemon in the blender. I then combined these three with the pasta, added salt and pepper and tomato sauce, and brought it out to the hippo who seemed happy and made a burping noise. The same sort of process occurred for other customers. One dish seemed very strange to me: a combination of zested lemon, boiled carrot, and pulsed red pepper, but the character had a positive reaction. After your customers eat the dishes, you put the dirty plates away, and you collect their coins.

I surprisingly really enjoyed this game. There were never any instructions which I realize is important though because it is playable for non-readers. It’s deceptively educational by teaching basic cooking skills to make a variety of different foods using a range of ingredients, tools, and techniques. It’s also good for younger kids because they can learn to read social cues like the nodding of heads. The most important element of the game is the absence of scoring or time limits, which really emphasizes fun experimentation over competition. Kids would also be attracted by its visual salience and the calming, tropical music playing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp5J4jgx9as

Olaf’s Adventures showed up tenth on both the free chart and the top-grossing chart. Basically, the user guides Olaf around his wintry hill to collect 10 snowflakes. To do so, I had to complete challenges or tasks, like dodging snowballs from Avalanche or impaling Olaf’s head. There were two wooden post labeled “Spring” and “Summer” with lock images, and when I clicked that, it said “grown-ups only” and had spelled out three four two six; the user would then have to enter the numbers 3426. I thought this was a clever way to protect kids from accessing the content requiring purchase. I’m disappointed though that you could not fully immerse yourself in the game without paying for these add-ons which parents might especially be turned off from. I was never actually able to find all 10 snowflakes and would have found that frustrating as a child. Of course, the best part of this app is the silly snowman character from Frozen that kids (and even my friends!) obsess over. This commercialism would entice children right away, but I think the app itself is not exciting or easy enough.

co-authored by Samantha Wenzel

Youth are increasingly exposed to media content with sexual content, messages, and behaviors through television, film, the internet, and new media. There has been less research done on the effects on media on the sexual behaviors and attitudes of youth, compared to other areas like violence, alcohol use, or eating disorders, because legal issues tend to limit experiments to college-aged participants (Iannotta 2009). Still, some studies have been able to demonstrate strong relationships between youth exposure to sexual content in media and earlier sexual activity (Brown et al., 2006; Brown & Newcomer, 1991; Collins et al., 2004).

http://www.tylerjanderson.com/2012-social-media-statistics/

THE CONTENT and THE PROBLEM

Media often portrays sex in a comedic or positive light without discussing possible consequences or dangers. Sexual behavior is shown as early, unprotected and simultaneously glamorous and risk-free (Brown 2008). At the same time, very little straightforward, educational content about healthy, responsible, appropriate sex exists. Studies on sexual content on television found that programs averaged seven scenes of sexual-related content per hour, and little to none of that time was about sexual and reproductive health topics like birth control, abstinence, or STI prevention (Brown, Steele, & Walsh-Childers, 2002; Kunkel, Eyal, Finnerty, Biely, & Donnerstein, 2005). 92% of 14-21 year olds surveyed said at least “some” of their TV, movies, music, games, or websites show people “kissing, fondling, or having sex” (Ybarra et al. 2014). These problems that we are dealing with need to be addressed, and we will focus on the latter by producing a program that offers adolescents engaging and healthy information about sex and their bodies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has argued that media representations of sexuality may influence teen sexual behavior. Strasburger (2012) reported that results from 17 longitudinal correlational studies ‘‘allow cause-and-effect conclusions to be drawn’’ and that ‘‘virtually all of them show an impact of sexual content in the media on adolescents’ sexual behavior.”’ Yet, an interesting paradox seems to be at play: content research shows that media has become more sexualized over the past 15 years but during that period, teen sex has declined and contraceptive use has increased (Brown 2008).

Despite this, we still see some problems in need of intervention. Teen birth rates in the US are some of the highest in the industrialized world, more than half of pregnancies in young adults are unplanned, and more than one quarter of girls have an STI (Brown 2008). Children seem to participate in risky sexual behaviors at younger ages: 16% of teens have sex by age 15, 33% by age 16, and 48% by age 17 (Finer, L.B. & Philbin, J.M. 2013). This increases the risks for unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases because they are being sexually active for almost a decade or more before marriage. Additionally, youth who have sex at age 14 or younger take longer than their older peers to begin using contraceptives (Finer, L.B. & Philbin, J.M. 2013).

In a survey of 12-17 year olds, youth with high exposure to sexual content on TV were twice as likely to initiate sexual intercourse within the next year and were sexually active 6 months prior than youth with low exposure (Collins 2004, as cited by Brown 2008). In that same study, girls viewed more sexual content on TV than boys.

AUDIENCE

Boys have sex earlier than girls (12.48 to 13.16 years old). Sex also seems to be correlated with low-income youth more, with one in four children between 11-16 years old having sex, leading to an average of 12.77 years (Jordahl, T. & Lohman, B.J. 2009). Racially, white youth who had a “sexual media diet” when 12-14 years old were 2.2 more likely to have had sex soon after as 14-16 year olds. The same was not found for blacks, which leads to the conclusion that whites’ exposure to sexual content in media accelerates their sexual activity and increases their risk of engaging in sex earlier more than blacks who are more influenced by parental and peer expectations (Brown et. al 2006). In terms of age, when children reach 9 years old, they are more likely to purposefully seek out information on sexual behavior, sexual health, and contraception (Iannotta 2001). Plus, it has been developmentally proven that children under 9 years old might find sexual content upsetting, so we are targeting our program to children over this age, specifically age 12 and over.

MEDIUM

Television, film, and music which compromise the longer-existing, traditional mediums are of primary concern regarding inappropriate sexual content. However, we think that it our internet-based program would be the best medium for sexual health education because of its accessibility and accessibility. A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that adolescents spend 4.5 hours with television and 6.5 hours on the internet each day. Our program would encompass two of the five media strategies for sexual health promotion according to The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy: “education-entertainment” and new media technologies. One study found that 41 percent of young respondents said they had changed their behavior because of health information they found online, and almost half then contacted a health care provider. Youth will be able to access our media more privately, more frequently, and in more contexts than traditional media.

PROPOSED SOLUTION

In order to educate teens about sexuality and encourage sex positive thinking, we plan to create a web series targeted to children from 12-16 years old. When attempting to figure out the best way to reach our audience, we found inspiration in a popular sex education YouTube channel – “Sex +”. Sex + is a web series hosted by Laci Green. Laci Green is a young, educated, sexual education activist. Her videos cover a variety of topics from explaining feminism to “the truth about pulling out”. The videos are honest, funny, and highly informational. Additionally, her videos are extremely popular with the young audience that makes up many YouTube viewers.

As we don’t want to create a copy-cat channel of Laci Green’s, our approach has a distinct twist. Our web series – title to be determined – would be hosted on YouTube, with a video a week focused on a specific sexual topic. The format of the show would follow suit of the show “Girl Code” or “I Love the 80s” in which a range of people provide honest commentary on the same subject. The people featured on the show would range from graduate students educated on the topic, student activists, YouTubers, Vine celebrities, bloggers, etc. One report by TECHsex USA (2011) found that “the most potentially effective sex ed programs are a mashup of pop culture, TV, social media, friends, family, mobile technology and experts.” We would like the people on the show to represent a variety of cultures and gender and sexualities – but all within their 20s. We want children who watch our series to relate to the “cast” as they would a big brother or big sister. We want the show to tackle hard subjects but all while maintaining a frank yet witty approach — more MTV in essence than PBS. We find that humor is the best way to make an audience learn about something they may not initially care to learn about.

We chose YouTube as our platform due to the rising status of YouTube as it competes with television as the most popular medium for entertainment among teenagers and young adults. Additionally, we considered that a child would be more likely to watch a YouTube video about sex education privately on their phone than watch a television show in the communal family room of their home. The comment section of YouTube is an additional feature that provides us direct interaction with our audience. Through the comments viewers can ask additional questions that the cast can answer, the audience can offer each other advice, and we can get a sense of the sort of topics that that our audience wants to learn about. Essentially, we want our show to be a safe space for teens where their interests, opinions, and questions matter.

Topics to be discussed would range from how to have safe sex to reviews of television shows and movies in terms of their sex positive qualities. We want a broad range of topics questions to be covered – despite the conservative nature of our public.

Works Cited

Brown, J.D., White A.B., Nikopoulou L (1993). “Disinterest, intrigue, resistance: early adolescent girls’ use of sexual media content” (pp. 177-195). In: Greenberg, B.S., Brown J.D., & Buerkel-Rothfuss N.L. (eds.) Media, sex and the adolescent. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Brown, J. (Ed). (2008). “Managing the Media Monster: The Influence of Media (From Television to Text Messages) on Teen Sexual Behavior and Attitudes.” Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy

Brown, J.D. et al. (2006). “Sexy Media Matter: Exposure to Sexual Content in Music, Movies, Television, and Magazines Predicts Black and White Adolescents’ Sexual Behavior”. Pediatrics 117 (4): 1018–1027.

Finer, L.B. and Philbin, J.M. (2013.) “Sexual initiation, contraceptive use, and pregnancy among young adolescents, Pediatrics 131 (5): 1-6.

Iannotta, J. (2009.) “Regulating the media: Sexually explicit content” (Chapter 21, pp. 479-502). In: Calvert, S.L & Wilson, B.J. (eds.) The Handbook of Children, Media, and Development. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Jordahl, T. & Lohman, B.J. (2009) A Bioecological Analysis of Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Early Sexual Intercrouse of Young Adolscents. Children and Youth Services Review 31(12): 1272-1282.

TECHsex USA: Youth Sexuality and Reproductive Health in the Digital Age. (2011) The Ford Foundation. <http://www.isis-inc.org/ISISpaper_techsx_usa.pdf>

Ybarra et. al (2014). “Sexual Media Exposure, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual Violence Victimization in Adolescence.” Clinical Pediatrics pp.1-9.

Franktown Rocks is a social networking experience targeted to kids 8-12 that combines games and music in a massively multi-player online game. Users create their account as a skunk, pig, bear, or hamster. There are two chat level options: free type or pre-typed. An email is needed but will only be contacted if the user forgets his/her password. A birthdate is never asked.

At Franktown, you can earn money by voting in polls or playing games. This is a positive aspect of the website. The entire concept of the town promotes and socializes kids for community involvement and political participation. The multi-player games are easy ways to meet other users. Another strength to Franktown is its ability to bridge distances. Quite a couple users said they were from the UK. Others said they were from the US, including Kentucky and California. One user said he attended NEMIS (which, I looked up, is the New Middle East International School in Saudi Arabia).

When you’re moving around the town, you can listen to a music stream that includes artists like Taylor Swift, the Jackson 5, the Jonas Brothers, Toby Mac, and Hannah Montana. If you become a paying member, you can create your own playlist with a bigger selection of songs (including hip-hop, country, and international). I played some games at the “Recording Studio,” which also offered 1-2 minute non-animated, music lesson videos for guitars, drums, and the keyboard. This was my absolute favourite aspect of the website; it’s educational and uniquely about music instead of subjects like literacy or math. At Franktown’s movie theatre, users can watch short clips of videos, even from works like Up, School of Rock, Pee Wee Herman, and Veggie Tales. These music and movies elements are two major strengths of the site by showing age-appropriate and age-relevant media.

Most conversations seemed pretty trivial and random, like “What’s up?” or “How’s your day?” but some were inappropriate. zxy_josh asked, “Are you Arab?” and “Do you ride camels?” and “Why is there so much unrest in the Middle East?” Another girl responded, “Arab and Proud” and “You are very naïve.” Others were sexual; “pssy” and “prn” frequently came up in conversations. I asked, “Why are you saying these things?” and one user replied, “Cuz you can’t stop me.” Franktown Rocks does have an intricate system of electronic and human monitoring, according to their online policy manual. In fact, I tried to type out “porn” and was given an immediate message that the content was not permitted. I understand that it is very difficult to realistically maintain these kinds of boundaries, especially when offering the free text option to users. I read the site’s privacy policy and parent manual. They state that user activity is carefully monitored by human and electronic means. The site also has a No-Cyber Bullying policy which educates its online staff about its dangers and disciplinary steps.

Television is still the primary way that children are introduced and engaged with media. Today’s popular programs, spanning both the commercial and public television networks, are very wide-ranging.

From Jessie on Disney Channel, I watched “No Money, Mo’ Problems” and “The Runaway Bride of Frankenstein” which aired this past fall. The first is about the ongoing romantic relationship between Jessie, 22, and her boyfriend, Brooks, 25 and ends with Brooks proposing to Jessie. The second Halloween-inspired episode chronicles Brooks’ attempts to get the kids to like him, and Jessie finally accepts Brooks’ proposal.

http://deadline.com/2013/03/jessie-renewed-third-season-disney-channel-463695/

With hardly any educational value at all, the show is more for entertainment’s sake, though kids might learn positive messages about friendship and unconventional family life. The harmful aspect of this show is its projection of stereotypical, stock characters with an Indian boy genius, dumb blonde girl, immature girl-obsessed boy, a bossy African American girl, and a materialistic mother, and an unattractive but kind butler. This program somewhat fits the developmental needs and abilities of its audience. Knowledge of Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, Benjamin Franklin’s kite experiment, and the Frankenstein plot would be critical to understand these episode’s humor/absurdity. Kids might not be developmentally able to conceptualize romantic love, but they see its dramatic nature (ie: kiss in the elevator as the water sprinkler alarm goes off). I thought some content might frighten younger viewers, especially Jessie’s daydream scene with Brooks as Frankenstein scaring the town. Its set is designed in an eye-catching, over-the-top manner and the scenes move rather quickly to keep audiences interest. Children would feel empowered by the characters’ lives unbound by authority, money, or school.

From PBS, I watched (from 2014) “The Friend Who Wasn’t There” and “Surprise!” on the show Arthur.

https://www.tumblr.com/search/arthur%20tv

This is targeted toward a younger audience with much more positive messages and positive role models than Jessie (and none of the sexual themes/innuendos). It teaches valuable social lessons especially targeting siblings and friends. The messages in these were: 1) use your imagination despite new gadgets, toys, and money and 2) be nice to siblings even if they have been mean to you. Arthur isn’t “dumbed down” like other educational kids shows I have watched. Children enjoy the show because its problems are real-life situations they have experienced. In terms of content, it is very salient to kids, using bright colors, animated and personified animal characters, and familiar concepts like bowling parties and imaginary friends. The first episode even had a Wizard of Oz reference that older audiences could appreciate. The second episode encouraged children to develop their perspective-taking when Francine said, “I remembered how I felt when she pranked me.” In between each Arthur episode is a short live-action segment; in this one, kids in a classroom “traveled” to different times and places by dressing in costumes and singing educational chants, like ancient Egypt, Rome with Julius Caesar, and South Africa with Nelson Mandela. Children would enjoy this imagination activity with their own home time machine.

http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/168389162-hispanic-mother-and-children-using-computer-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=1ZQieOMwH7A1vKdQBRko65EZP8yfM4woUmZcshRX66w%3D

The nature/nurture debate always seems to make its way into various topics and conversations. Media content and use is no exception. Tekeuchi and Levine reference the Ecological Systems Theory which explains that children grow and learn within nested, interrelated environments. A child’s exosystems, microsystems, and macrosystems all impact his/her attitudes, behaviors, concerns, and well-being.

I interviewed a 15-year-old child and his mother. She seemed to lean towards the perspective that children are vulnerable, naiive, and need adult protection. She did see her son as very media savvy though. She kept repeating that kids should be taught to use their media and technology in the right, appropriate, and responsible way. She thinks that is where a lot of modern day issues arise, especially with social media, because children are not knowledgeable enough on how to act.

The mom was in favor of parental monitoring of their child’s media. Regarding time limits, she said that her children “never gave her a reason to do so.” She said that this would have changed if she had seen her children neglecting school work or not directly interacting in an outside social life. But her children seemed to want to live more balanced lives; her son talked about reading, doing homework, and playing sports all almost daily. This exemplifies Strasburger’s concept of narrow socialization in which the family is a strong unit and there are clear expectations. As far as media content, she did not let her children have social media accounts until they were in high school. It is important to mention that she is the principal of a K-8 school, so her own microsystem clearly influences her attitudes and concerns, and this acts as an exosystem for her children. She has seen, as an educator, too much social media harassment and cyberbullying in her middle school age students, so she carries this over to her parenting style.

Her son’s main sources of media are television and music. When he was younger, she did not have to monitor his content because he always preferred the safe, appropriate options like Disney Channel and PBS. As he grew older, though, she monitored this through things like parental control settings on the TV so anything at a certain rating would require a password. He said that he would go to friends’ houses and watch movies his mom wouldn’t allow. Interestingly, he has always had a fear of clowns, and he said this is because the dog-nappers dressed as clowns in the first Air Bud movie. He seldom played video games and was never fond of the violent, war-themed ones. Instead, the son was drawn to music – a clear example of how parents’ own media habits influence a child because his father was/is a big music fan. Though he said he spends the most media/tech time listening to music, he is very involved in Snapchat, and he has an Instagram account but only posts when he goes to concerts. Another phenonmenon to address later: media overlapping!

Technology and media’s impact on children today is very widespread. Like Tekeuchi and Levine state, technology is more powerful, affordable, and flexible than ever before. My generation was playing with Leap-pads and Nintendo 64s while today’s generation of kids play with objects like iPads, much more versatile and mobile. This generation of youth differs from previous ones, according to Takeuchi and Levine, because of the quick rate at which these technologies are created, adopted, and then routinized into daily lives.

I believe that the nature of childhood has not overwhelmingly changed. It remains a period when kids interact with their surrounding environments and increase their understanding of people, places, emotions, and ideas. It involves playing, growing, and loving, and the curious and inquisitive qualities of this time period endure. Despite this, some differences must be acknowledged. Because of technology, children seem to participate in less tactile, hands-on experiences. My fun with my three-foot, ten-piece Blue’s Clues floor puzzle and purple Easy-Bake oven kitchen may be things of the past, replaced by apps and virtual games instead. Some people might argue that this describes a decrease in imagination-geared activities, but I believe kids are still developing and using this brain function just in an altered, unique way. Children are also growing up more unaware of the media’s pervading presence. This inescapability can be negative, especially when confronted with certain media messages that may not be accurate, healthy, or positive. On the positive side, media and technology are cultivating a culture of “anytime anywhere learning,” described by Tekeuchi and Levine. The old paper-pencil (or chalk-chalkboard like my Kindergarten days) is no longer the only learning method which benefits a broader, more diverse range of learning styles.

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I fear that today’s children will have more anti-social tendencies and habits. Sure, they can use Instagram and Snapchat and Facebook to interact with their friends, but there is something essential about face-to-face interaction. Today’s children’s social skills, as basic as eye contact when having a conversation or reading a person’s body language cues, suffer because of their disproportional screen time. Media friendships are not a good replacement to actual quality social time, whether at the playground, in the classroom, or on the soccer field.

I hope that this quarter teaches me how to be a kid again. And not just a revisit to my own childhood but immersion into this new media, technology-rich youth environment. I fondly remember receiving my first cell phone (the cool, sliding keyboard kind) after graduating eighth grade, and nowadays, it’s not uncommon for kids to get theirs on their eighth birthday! I hope this blog opens my mind into truly understanding the dimensions of this issue: these kids are neither infinitely more blessed nor infinitely more cursed than me as a child. I want to learn both what challenges and opportunities they face, and how this can impact my interactions with and attitudes toward children that I might work with in my career or raise as my own someday.