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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!