I really enjoyed last Thursday's discussion on Gender Roles and how different media influences our lives. As I watch TV or flip through a magazine, I cannot go 10 minutes without running into some sort of sexually related image. I feel that today's media is corrupting our society and future generations. Young boys are getting the message that treating women wrongfully is okay and little girls are being told that they need to look "model" quality all the time otherwise no one will love them.
There is also so much profanity on television and in newly release movies. Children should not be exposed to these types of media until they are older. For example, when I was younger, I rode a bus route to school with some rough neighborhood kids. I was around cuss words and vulgar behavior for so long, that it became apart of me and happens to slip out in everyday conversation. If I had the power to choose which bus route I could have ridden back then, I would have switched to a different one to avoid almost everything I was exposed to. There are just somethings children should not know until they are older.
But anywho, what ever happened to good, wholesome shows such as the Brady Bunch and Full House? In my opinion, I feel that our society has lost touch with the old family values and believe that reality television game shows are how people should act.
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Who decides what is and isn't appropriate for children to view or listen to? What you and many children were/are exposed to is called real life. Sheltering them from reality can be just as detrimental as exposing them to it. Shows like the Brady Bunch and Full House are not accurate portrayals of life. Do you know anyone like the Brady family?
The gender roles of the days of yore were fairly accurate for their respective time, however, todays shows are reflective of todays society--whether we like it or not. Television does not impact me in the sense that it's okay to treat women disrespectfully and it does not encourage me to use cuss words. It comes down to how I was raised and my own personal values.
Wow you both have some good points. I agree that it's hard to determine excatly how much media influences us but I also agree that it definatly does. I did my term paper for high school on the influences media has in America and I strongly believe that the mass media can get you to believe whatever they want. This is scary considering we have children who don't know the difference between hitting someone in a friendly manner and hitting someone in vain for example. If you think about it now, yeah, you probably aren't really affected by what they say as much as when you were a child because you know their tricks and you have your values set, hopefully. But think about this-the last time a tastey Big Mac or something you really like eating came on t.v. it probably made you think..mmmm! that looks good or man now I'm hungry!..see? it doesnt excatly make you go out and buy one but it makes you think excatly what it's trying to.....about the Brady Bunch/ Full House- I don't think it's fair to say those families don't exist because they all face problems that occur in 'real' families. Can you imagine if all we saw on T.V. was abusive and neglagent families? That's what we would believe was the "norm" for families. See it would be the same "it's not accurate" but in a negative way. So all in all the media does play a big role in America whether its cautious or subliminal and whether we like it or not.
I totally agree with everyone so far. You all have make lots of good point supporting your own Pov. I just realize how much the media influence our life not so long before we have that discussion in class from another sociology class. I found those same advertisements very disturbing and agree that we shouldn’t let children get expose to it too much. Right we cannot control it because that’s the norm now. But it doesn’t apply to everyone either. I don’t think we can completely eliminate it but we can try different method to not expose our family member, especially kid by limiting their exposure to media and increase in family activities or sport. For example a topic I remember from last semester where we talk about violence in the media. We cannot forbid violence show because it could have negative influence on kids. It’s a source of entertainment for anyone who like that category and are able to handle it but we do have a choice to either watch or don’t watch it and for children we can block those channel with password. Lastly I do agree that keeping children from reality is as detrimental but we shouldn’t let something that can be in our control slip away since children have enough exposure on their own when they go outside by ad, friend, and other sources so I think we should keep that away from home as best possible to lessen the influence.
I, too, agree with each of you... I think that it is just as much of a bad influence on kids as well as reality in some sort of way. It comes down to your personal values, how you were raised, and what you believe to be right and wrong. Sometimes you watch tv and decide "oh I want my family to be just like that," or in opposition, see exactly what you don't want to happen in/to your family.
On to the advertising side of things, I think it is sometimes sad how women are portrayed, I am also in sociology, women studies, and we looked at several ads depicting women in a negative/irrelevant way to the product there were advertising. Or when they have the ads with the girls covering their mouths as to silence them, as women "should keep quiet" and even now they are still making ads like that. During the superbowl, the Mr. Potato head commercial came on and he and Mrs. Potato head were driving fast and he hit a bump and her mouth went flying as if to silence her and he was relieved she couldn't nag anymore. The commercial was for tires. Completely irrelevant. But I guess what has been socially accepted will continue to be produced, through tv shows, advertising, etc. Yet, I don't necessarily believe that what young children see on tv will shape how they will grow up or view different people, they'll still have the opportunity to learn for themselves and decide what is right and what is wrong.
I think that media definately has an influence on children also. I decided after talking about this is class to watch the channels that my little sister watches on a regular basis. They watch Disney, Toon Disney, Nickelodean, etc. I watched Nick for only minutes and I was recognizing that there are images and things on that I don't think are good for her to be exposed to. The other channels weren't as back but I was just shocked at some of the things that they put on a channel that is dedicated to children!
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