Key Quote
|
The growth of the home as a multimedia environment is having dramatic, potentially negative effects on the family as a social unit. Most homes with cable television access have hundreds of general and niche channels available for viewing, while these same homes are more and more likely to have more than one television. Everyone in the family has their own media source that is meeting their media needs. While this can be seen as beneficial, what it implies is that children are watching without parents and preschoolers watching with out older siblings. Most research has shown that there has never been enough supervision of children's media use, but these new phenomena exacerbate this problem, as there are even fewer opportunities for family members to work from shared content. "Media use often happens in isolation, behind closed doors. This precludes parents' discussion of media use and supervision." Annenberg research has shown that sixty to seventy percent of televisions in American are in bedrooms and Internet accessible computers are frequently put in out of the way places like the bedroom or basement.
Dr. Jordan's advice is not to tell parents to turn media sources off. Instead, they should sit down, see what their children are doing, ask them why certain shows or websites are appealing, and try to help them understand why the parents might feel a certain program or website is offensive or inappropriate. According to Dr. Jordan, the biggest mistake a parent can make is to put a television in a child's bedroom or put the Internet in the basement. It is simply too tempting for children to venture where they should not; "you want children to explore, but you want them to explore safely."
Both time spent watching and content can have a significant impact on children. Research has found that, at least with television, a watershed mark is reached, typically at about 1.5 to 2 hours a day, at which point the benefits of television disappear, regardless of what is watched. Researchers found that children who watch about 1.5 hours of television a day did better on predictors of academic achievement than kids who watched more or less; researchers theorized that the television programming stimulated the children, inspired them, and exposed them to new things that would otherwise have been inaccessible. A well-regarded long term study that traced children over 10 years found that children who watched educational television early in life did better academically even as far in the future as high school. "I don't know that you necessarily want to say that it is much better to watch no television. Most of us who are thoughtful about it and know the literature say moderate amounts of TV, especially when balanced with educational programming, is beneficial for kids."
While there is no evidence that kids who hear cursing through the media start cursing themselves, and there is only weak evidence of a causal relationship between exposure to sex on television and teens' own sexual practices, there is a more distinct link between media violence and children. The consensus is that for some children, under some conditions, some of the time, watching a lot of violent television, playing violent video games, being exposed to violent movies, will affect them. It could desensitize them to violence in real life, it could make them more likely to be aggressive (for girls verbally aggressive, for boys sexually or physically aggressive), and can make them perceive the world as inherently mean or scary, leading to paranoia.
There is a causal link between excessive television viewing and having a higher body-mass index. This relationship has been proven experimentally in well-controlled studies. Watching television is an inherently sedentary activity; in general, the more television watched, the less active a person is. Content also drives consumers, especially children, to bad food choices. Many commercials shown during children's programming advertise sugary, fatty foods, in very appealing ways; an older study showed that 75% of all ads during children's television were for sugary cereals, junk food, and candy.
Little is known about children's psychological response to exposure to information and communications technologies. While researchers do know how children learn from educational TV that is tied to a curriculum, and related to school topics, it is unclear whether the "pro-social" educational programming that most broadcasters air to meet their "Three-Hour Rule" requirements have any sort of positive or negative effect. While it is difficult to get such research past institutional review boards, more research is needed in helping understand how children's exposure to sex and sexual innuendo affects their psychosexual development. "We don't know what kids really understand, how it affects them, and at what age."
Dr. Jordan also cites the emerging phenomena known as "windowing" as a key area for further investigation. This phenomenon, where a company, brand, or line is marketed ubiquitously, through television, websites, toys in McDonalds Happy Meals, etc., is creating brand loyalty at earlier and earlier ages. Little is know about how this influences consumerist tendencies and spending patterns. This sort of study is particularly important considering the enormous spending influence and discretionary income young people now have.
While the Digital Divide is closing, there are distinct socioeconomic differences in media use. While it seems that socioeconomic status is becoming less of a factor in determining access to Internet technology, real, problematic distinctions still exist. Typically, the more affluent a home, the more technologies, in the form of televisions, computers, etc., are present. The one exception to this is with video games. The less affluent are more likely to have video games than the more affluent. This becomes problematic when considered alongside the research on violence, discussed below. Additionally, the less affluent are more likely to allow televisions in bedrooms, with the associated problems discussed above. Considering all homes that have computers, children from lower socioeconomic groups tend to play more entertainment games on the computer than higher groups. Even when adjusted for socioeconomic status, results show that African Americans play more violent computer and video games than other children.
Dr. Jordan believes that these distinctions may speak to parental expectations about what children should be getting from the media. In her studies, she found that affluent children actually watched the most television, as they were often in the care of others with different sensibilities about media use. Those same affluent households, however, were much more likely to have an active discussion about media, its value, and how much time should be spent with it. In less affluent homes, the discussion usually concentrated on the nature of content.
Calvert, Sandra L., and Amy B. Jordan. "Children in the Digital Age." Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 22, no. 1 (2001): 3-5.
Jordan, Amy B., Kelly L. Schmitt, and Emory H. Woodard, IV. "Developmental Implications of Commercial Broadcasters' Educational Offerings." Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 22, no. 1 (2001): 87-101.
» Next: Dr. Stephen T. Kerr