“Media Has Big Influence On Kids: Study defines time spent on TVs, CDs, PCs.”--Kiesewetter, John, and Cindy Kranz

http://www.parentingbookmark.com/pages/ArticleMedia01.htm

In a survey involving more than 3,000 children 2-18, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that “average American” youth are laden with media. This articles primary concern is how the media has become just as time consuming as a regular school day. The article states,

"A Kaiser Family Foundation national study of media use, the first of its kind, found that “the typical American child” spends five hours and 29 minutes a day using media. That's one minute less than the daily minimum instructional time for Ohio secondary schools.... And kids age 8 and older use media an hour and 15 minutes more daily, according to the “Kids & Media @ The New Millennium” report."

This was a non-aggressive look at the negative aspects of media. It was not attacking the media, but simply saying that maybe there is cause for concern in the amounts of time our youth is spending in front of the TV or computer screen. The concern here is that the media is outweighing the balance that it should when it comes to education. Also, parents are not monitoring what it is their children are “learning”.

I think media should be viewed as a sort of teacher, and treated as such when parents are monitoring what programs their children watch. Popular opinion is very influential, especially in adolescents. The media is also practically unavoidable, so how could someone not realize that they learn from the media? And it is not that all media is bad, there are positives. It just seems that right now the negative aspects are so prominent, while the "good" messages lie buried beneath the heaping piles of "crap".