Arat+I.+-+POSITION+PAPER

 Parents should lead their kids through to safe and positive paths carefully monitoring their child's exposure to the media avoiding the distractions of media content that may be inappropriate to them.
 * Is Our Judgement And Our Opinions Influenced By Media? **

Whether you’re talking to a friend or to a teacher no matter the subject, it’s almost impossible not to relate it to some sort of media. Movies and shows have opened up perspectives and opinions of society through expression of dramas, romance, or family comedies, like The Bill Cosby Show that reflected people of color on previously unseen social, economic and cultural levels at the time, but later shifted back to the original image of African Americans (Wilson). It's ridiculous to think that kids know so much more than they should because of the exposure they have to media without the appropriate guidance to show what's right and what's wrong. It's actually threatening. It's startling to think that, “By the time the average U.S. child starts elementary school he or she will have seen 8,000 murders and 100,000 acts of violence on TV. - New Scientist, 2007" (lemiffe), because such influence can very much affect the person you become in the future. Parents should lead their kids through to safe and positive paths carefully monitoring their child's exposure to the media avoiding the distractions of media content that may be inappropriate to them.

Young people who are proven to be exposed to media early in life. "...heavy exposure to the media raises the risk of harmful behavior and conditions in children, including attention problems, drug and alcohol use, obesity, poor grades in school, smoking as well as sex," (Chow). Almost 100% of those studies prove that children with this much exposure have sex at a younger age. As human beings, we learn by seeing and imitating (lemiffe). Following that trend, we as quick learners act accordingly to films and shows we watch everyday. It's incredible how the exposure really does affect our senses.

On the positive side, we have learned a lot from media. Sitcoms really influenced our perspectives, like The Cosby Show which, "transcended racial, class, and gender differences to become universally appealing to the American public" (Wilson). Since the shows we have learned to see blacks as we see everyone else even though on television it slowly came back to its minstrel image. Limiting kid`s use of media and also guiding them on knowing when too much information is too much information (Chow). After all, "a child in the modern world today spends close to 45 hours each week with media sources such as cell phones, the internet, magazines, movies, music, television, and video games." Media revolves around us and it is our jobs to make sure what we take in from it is enough and won't confuse our emotions and judgements for our future.

When it comes to social networking, there are places to set maximum privacy settings, also being careful not share personal information and be aware of how much time is being spent online, but the unfortunate thing with these solutions are that people either don't know about privacy settings or don't care and the worst part is that people have different opinions of what is meant to be private or not (Frazier). Another thing is that kids always find a way to ignore their parents when they, for example, tell them not get a facebook, they do anyways. Television and film are huge impacts on people, especially children because ever since its existence, it has always been an example and regardless of the family a child comes from or how he/she has been raised and they found that children who are exposed to violent TV shows are more likely than any to be convicted of a crime (lemiffe). This isn't to say that films should stop putting those things on television but if we, as the audience should know how to take it all, after all that is the purpose of ratings. Children are the future and slowly their minds are deteriorating, and the future can be greatly affected both economically and socially (Chow). With every cause, there is an effect, we can't cause those effects that ruin our world.

Although not proven, when you think about it, when kids text and message constantly, they have created their own abbreviated language, such as always saying, "like" or "g2g," "cya," "ttyl," "brb," etc. and this is a strong encouragement of poor grammar, usage and spelling, and with the amount of texts teens must send a day, obviously leads to the decrease of productivity (Frazier). Teens have their own world and this world spreads to others minds slowly curbing our opinions and judgement. "Children spend more time with media than any other activity, except for sleeping." (Children Now). The most interesting part to it is that the parents are the ones that open them up to media and to be honest, they do have an incredible say in how much is exposed to their children. Films and television is although an art, but as I said before, we must know what goes in our minds and learning to distinguish what's real and fake and what's, "tolerable or bearable and what is simply going over the limit (lemiffe). Not only is media around us all, but it confuses us and blocks the paths we may need to follow for our futures

Filmmakers and television producers have exposed so much to society, and should concentrate on the important details that will increase our minds’ ability to take in the message intended without distractions of violence, sex, and other unimportant variables unless necessary. It is important to show what needs to be shown and not what is not, because that just distracts from what the message is if there is one and that distraction can cause serious consequences to society and corrupt young minds and potentially making them someone they don't need to be (Chow). Think of world with 80% to 100% less violence; it only takes getting used to not seeing so much negative influence exposed through media. What really provokes people of becoming violent is what they see because the human mind acts to what it sees (lemiffe). This isn't to say that all movie are automatically bad because of one sexual or violent scene. Films and television are forms of art, but there are those movies and shows that take too much time to show unnecessary details that can take up half the show or movie and in the end, you realize there was absolutely no purpose of the creation and these sorts of entertainment is incredibly available to everyone of all ages and children and teens take up most of their time in a day watching TV or other forms of media (Children Now). Media is a huge influence on everybody but society needs to understand what is important or not and differing reality from fantasy.

It's important for restrictions to be set on cinema and media in itself. There may be ratings on movies and maybe a website that informs you of its content but that's it, not __all__ movie theaters I.D. the customer and when it comes out on DVD, __anyone__ can buy it and that completely defeats the purpose of its warnings and if people set more limits, less information gets out and less people's minds are corrupted (Frazier). There are rules and restriction of course, but its the enforcing which is the problem and solving that problem is a whole other situation. Also, we have parents who don't all know how to direct thee issues either, and they are one very big influence in a child's life, but media can incredibly overpower that authority (lemiffe). Discipline and understanding are very strong factors in the world, and that prevents children from just curbing the rules by sneaking into a movie, stealing, having sex at a young age, doing drugs or even getting a social network profile secretly. Asking one teen to understand the importance of media's influence is absurd, but asking the parent or guardian to disipline the child in a way that they do and actually care is not impossible.

Social technology has been an incredible influence on everyone especially teens and has affected their ways of being. This form of technology has affected greatly the way people identify themselves according to Natasha Murashev, an author of digital magazine focused on applied psychology. She states how texting and Facebook are tools for "today's teens to develop emotional bonds, their own identities, and an ability to communicate and work with others". She also says researchers have found that sites such as Facebook and Myspace mimics how teens interact with people other than online, such as friends at school. In other words, social networking reflects how we are as people in real life other than who we are online and over text. Social networking is a form of self expression according to Murashev, but I say otherwise.

Social Networking is indeed a big influence over people and of course especially teens because we are the ones that grow with it. Although it doesn't right to say that social networking is a form of self expression because the truth is that because its an online identity, we can say whatever we want but be someone completely different, such as a cyberbully (Frazier). Of course because media is something we access daily for long periods of time (Children Now) we may become who we say we are online but that isn't necessarily a good thing because that means that the media has taken over our lives almost completely. That is not good for our health and how is that us children will be the future if our present is taken up so much by media which slowly corrupts us? (Chow). If media does show who we are really, than the people we are, are the people we see on television and movies, and therefore we aren't really ourselves. An example should be set for teens to understand that self expression is personal and the elimination of social networking can be the cure.

Since not only the influence of technology has been so big, it has also been very widespread. The YouTube channel has been around for years and is visited constantly in one day (Zhang). This media access is very influential just as much as Facebook and Myspace. Also just as much as those social networks, maybe even more, it is visited a lot, "Like most of my peers, I get my daily dose of video content, amateur or professional, online," admits Zhang. Obviously people spend a lot of there time watching these social media sites. Social media sites and sources are all around us and incredibly easy to access.

The truth is that there isn't much to celebrate there but the fact that people as consumers have become obsessed with just that, consuming. This is quite sad, "Zach [Zhang's proffesor] has also disabled his cable subscription after he got used to watching all his desired TV shows on Hulu [another television channel]." (Zhang). It seems that not only media itself is influential through its exposure, but its so easily exposed that everyone can access it. Media is so over exposed to everybody, including children and teens, there is no doubt that a lot of that media is bad for its consumption in some way (Chow). Television and films can now be seen everywhere and YouTube has no limits, for example they don't force you to make an account unless they suspect a certain video is not suitable, but making an account is also free of charge, so accessing YouTube is 100% easy (YouTube). Perhaps a software that can physically prove who is suitable for certain content is needed and the knowledge for why it is needed comes with the parents discipline towards the child?

Violence through media is a huge, and its influence is bigger and the specific ideas and feelings they give us our very strong. Gerard Jones was only thirteen and he was "alone and scared" and what did he do solve his issues? He read The Hulk, a comic book from the company Marvel and this made him stringer (Jones). This was because his parents, who originally didn't want him to be exposed to the violent world of his time, permitted him to read it because a student of his mother said that Marvel comics were dedicated to messages about "pacifism and tolerance, " says Jones. Now he is a comic book writer, inspired by none other than "The Hulk". This is questionable, though he does prove it with certain evidence that states the psychologically, violent media makes you stronger; I beg to differ.

The fact that Jones seriously believes that violence through comics, and video games are all good for making a person overcome fears and in general become stronger is astonishing, and as to no surprise, the parents are the ones that allowed it. Parents are a huge influence on their children and when they aren't there for them really, is just opening them up to more and more each day because they aren't there to stand by their sides and guide them through the reality of life (Chow). Media can be stronger than the parent in most cases, ad in this man's life, that is obviously the situation. A good percentage of those who are delinquents and violent people were exposed to violent sort of media at a young age (Lemiffe). So the source of the information Jones states about it being proven is very doubtful. How can we go through life being so exposed to such media? Easy, it's all right in front of our faces, and who should be here by our sides to tell us that we don't that information in our minds? An influence; our parents.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">How many times a day do you recall a television show or movie after hearing a friend or family member say anything related. Our minds are programmed in that way. We relate, recall, remember and reference to our past. The fact that we are stronger after growing up with violence and gore isn't really because we're "stronger" we actually become brutal and that never ends well. That's called resistance and when we resist, it is very hard to ever accept anything we don't know and sometimes never accept ourselves and who we are as people. If we live on the opposite side of that and accept people and ourselves, we appreciate life more and imagine a world of appreciation instead of hatred. How can we move on in life with the images and opinions we see on T.V. or read in magazines? Will we ever know how much of that information is actually useful if we don't have someone by our side to guide us? We need a our family and we need our parents to understand what is right, what is wrong and how to deal with it all. Parents must learn to open paths for us, and of course WE decide where we go from that starting line, but at least we have the reminder that if we didn't have them, we'd be lost. "All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair." ― Mitch Albom.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 22px; text-align: center;">**ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY**

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Children Now. "Media's Impact On Children." //Children Now//. Children Now, 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. < [|http://www.childrennow.org] >.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Children Now says it this article how media impacts children. The report states how children spend most of their time with media than anything else other than sleep. Also how it really impacts them. This article is proof on how media really does revolve around everyone especially children and why it is important that it is used wisely.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Chow, Reuben. "Media Exposure Has Adverse Impact on Children's Health." Naturalnews.com. Natural News Network, 11 Jan. 2009. Web. 5 Apr. 2012. < [|http://www.naturalnews.com] >

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">This article is written by Reuben Chow, a natural health, healing and personal growth expert. He writes about how media is exposed to children and how it may affect the future since they are our future. He also says how parents should address, and this is very important because it explains what people do to limit such exposure.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Frazier, Karen. "Negative Impact of Social Networking Sites." //love to know.social networking//. LoveToKnow Corp., 2006-2012. Web. 10 Apr. 2012.< [|http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com] >.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">This article talks about how media has changed the way people interact by writer Karen Frazier. She states how media affects on every way. Also how we should react to it and what consequences there are. This article really does explain the importance of understanding media.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Jones, Gerard. "Violent Media is Good for Kids." //MotherJones//. Mother Jones, 28 June 2000. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. < [|http://motherjones.com] >.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">This article is written by renowned comic-book author Gerard Jones. He argues that these creative forms of violence helps children because it controls their rage from a young age. He discusses how when he was a boy and he was alone and scared, he was guided by the Hulk, a heroic persona and finally he was inspired to become a writer. This is a strong argument against how media can corrupt a child at a young age according to statistics and interviews around the globe.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">LeMiffe. "Films and their effect on Society." //lemiffe.// WordPress, 30 July 2009. Web. 3 Apr. 2012. < [|http://www.lemiffe.com] >.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">This blog entry by lemiffe in Entertainment, Life and Movies, is about film and its affect on society. This entry writes about what people are exposed to due ti violent films or varied subjects in news and how it affects them in the future. Society is affected greatly on what they see and how they evaluate things in their minds after so much brain drain.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Murashev, Natasha. "Why Social Media Is Actually Good For Teens." //Social Times//. WebMediaBrands Inc., 20 May 2010. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. < [|http://socialtimes.com] >.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">This artice written by Natasha Murashev is the author of PsychBlog, a digital magazine focused on applied psychology. She argues how social technology is a way that teens are more "well-adjusted" than those "less-connectes peers". She sates how its a form of creating personality and develops emotional bonds and such. This is an important argument against how children and teens are taken over y social media and media in general and how it takes away from a more natural life style.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Wilson, Krystal R. "America and the Huxtables: The Legacy of 'The Cosby Show.'"//grad.illinois.edu//. N.p., 2002. Web. 13 Mar. 2012. < [|http://www.grad.illinois.edu] >.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">This study is written by Krystal R. Wilson is a Broadcast Journalist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She writes in this study how The Cosby show affected society and drew a picture the African American family and their struggles socially, economically and politically. She writes how it changed the way sitcoms were done and left a legacy that lasted until the shows end.

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Zhang, Ruby. "Social Media Is Great." Ruby Zhang. WordPress, 17 May 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. < [|http://rubyczhang.com] >

<span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">This article is by Ruby Zhang, a Master’s candidate at USC Annenberg school’s Communication Management. Ruby celebrates the fifth anniversary of YouTube and discusses the influence of YouTube itself. YouTube has helped people share videos and stories and express themselves. This is a great article but it enthusiastically supports Media when it is really not that great.