The Effect

My parents did a fairly good job at "shielding" me from the media. Sometimes, I wish I had been more exposed to trends and media messages while I was younger. Even now, I have to be careful of what I watch on television because it may not be appropriate for my younger brother. Although I don't necessarily think shielding is a "bad" thing, I don't think it's completely irrelevant to life in a media-obsessed culture. Different topics posed in media- whether it be race, gender, sexuality-, I feel, are integral to self discovery. To understand more about yourself, you need to understand how you want to be represented in society. For young children and adults, oftentimes media gives people a role model, and we mirror ourselves after these people. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing. I think that the media has the power to access so many types of role models; the difficult part is to decide who we want to mirror ourselves after. Shows that send a negative message, such as Gossip Girl (sorry for stealing your example, Ailish) have unrealistic expectations for what teenage life is really like. Besides the fact that none of the characters look like they could be seniors in high school or freshman in college, the entire show is based on the socialite life of a bunch of spoiled kids. I find it absolutely hilarious and entertaining, but it's not truly reflective of most of the population. I think that kids should be given some amount of input, to help them understand what the media is portraying. They can't develop an opinion independently without understanding the undertones (which aren't always very clear cut, as shown in any Disney movies) of what they're seeing. It's also important to realize that a lot of the shows that young children are watching (ages 8-13) are based around characters older than they are (for example, Hannah Montana or High School Musical). What message does this send? Why do they need to dress like 16 year old, when they aren't 16? I think parental involvement is somewhat necessary, if not solely for the reason to help their children understand this concept. One aspect of the media that I consider harmful is how much this idea of needing to look older & act older is pushed upon kids, especially young girls. Let them be kids when they're kids, and teenagers once they're teenagers. There's really no need to speed anything up.