In today’s media-driven world, a significant number of children are spending long hours in front of the TV, sometimes watching content that is not completely appropriate for their age. This generates a debate on whether television has a detrimental impact over the young’s behaviour. In this essay, I will argue in favour of a negative influence of the media and address other possible factors influencing children attitude.
First and foremost, young individuals are easily subjective to manipulation and often copy the actions of other people, as they consider it to be “cool”. Therefore, the scenes watched by children in movies, shows and cartoons make an impact in their behavioral´s patterns. Obviously, these facts could be beneficial or not depending on the content, as positive life lessons can be taken from certain movies; however, from my point of view, most of the films and shows available on TV have significant levels of violence. For example, the inclusion of scenes of bulling, rape and fights, which are frequently justified to promote a character story development. As a consequence, children perceived those behaviours as normal, fostering unproper behaviour and hindering their social skills.
On the other hand, the media is not the only source of inapropriate behavioural patterns. In my opinion, social connections made at schools, as well as the actions seen at home, have an equal influence into the child development. For instance, children growing in unstructured families, with abusive parents and toxic relationships, are known to follow this type of behaviour in the future. However, even if the individual grows up in a normal family with good values, they can still be manipulated by their peers; for example, by going out with people who are into drugs or criminals.
In conclusion, the television plays a pivotal role in the development of the children behavior, although other factors, as family and friends, can contribute equally to the problem.