There are many kids’ TV shows out there, but how are they
affecting the minds of kids? I watched two episodes each of three kids’
television shows: “Hannah Montana”, “Wizards of Waverly Place”, and my personal
favorite, “How To Rock” to find out. I
kept a tally of the comments that were made to either build people up or tear
people down. I also indicated how each
comment was meant to be viewed by the audience: positively (something that is funny
or inspirational), negative (something the audience looks down on the character
for saying), or neutral (insignificant enough to not have a strong reaction).
The percentages were as follows:
Total Build Up Positive Neutral Negative
234 137 97 0
(39%) 59% 41% 0%
Total Put Down Positive Neutral Negative
367 281 71 15
(61%) 77% 19% 4%
46% of all the comments tallied were putdowns that were
meant to be funny.
My conclusion is that these TV shows are making put-downs
seem like they are funny which can really hurt people’s feelings. This is affecting teens in our society
because they inspire bad behavior. So, TV shows can really change many kids
because tearing somebody down is not funny.
This is why I control what my kids (8 & 5 but developmentally delayed) watch so carefully. When we added in "Phineas & Ferb" in the spring because it's closer to age appropriate and their cousins were watching it (probably the most important factor) I had to start explaining to my 5 year old daughter why Candace was obsessed with busting her brothers and I'm not sure I did such a good job helping her to understand.
ReplyDeleteWhat it's so bad is that the writers make it funny so it doesn't seem like such a bad thing. They don't seem to care or realize how much they're hurting so many kids.
ReplyDeleteI'm proud of my Eastin!
Thank you! :)
Delete