My View

When I sit and reflect on the way different media types affect children, I have mixed feelings. Personally I believe that media use is hurtful as well as helpful for children. I am going to dive into the pros and cons of media use for children.

First lets talk about the cons. One of the biggest issues I have with media is that as our society develops more technologicall, cells phones have a larger influence on the younger generations. When I was a kid, I remember limited computer use, limited time watching television, and my parents encouraging reading books and going outside. My favorite way to get in touch with friends was riding my bike to their houses, knocking on their doors, and asking them to come outside to play. We would spennd hours using our imagination to fight pirates or be princesses. We would build houses for fairies out of sticks and leaves, spend hours riding our bikes until the sun set, and then we would play manhunt at night with our walkie talkies. As I look at a new generation of children from the perspective of an adult, they way they communicate and spend time together has changed monumentally. These kids text one another to talk instead of having face to face conversation. They hang out six feet from eachother but stare at their phones, too wrapped up in social media apps and posting what they are doing. Kids are way too into their technology and posting their lives on social media that they are preventing themselves from truly living in the moment and creating memories with other people. Media is hindering communication, quality time, and experiences that children need to have. This effecting real life communication between kids, and not allowing them the social experiences they need to have in order to grow up socially confident. If every type of communication is between phone calls or social media posts, how is a child going to be able to have good in person social skills.  

Another issue I have is the platform that children have to be bullied. With apps like instagram, children can post whatever they want, have their friends follow, comment, and like their posts. With this ability, people can also text or comment rude and hurtful things, affecting children and their self esteem. This online comunication can allow for cyber bullying and effect childrens mental health. This is something that is seriously dangerous.

With the bad, there is also good uses for social media for children. Apps and different platforms can allow for self expression. Children can post whatever makes them happy, and get incontact with other people that might show similar interests. Take YouTube for example, so many people bring light on different activities and crafts to do for kids. This can inspire them to get involved in different imaginative things that make them happy. Kids can also use different media types for educational purposes. There are so many different websites to help with different subjects in school, such as YouTube channels, or Khan Academy. There are so many different outlets for educational help and tutoring. 

Other than that, I personally believe there needs to be age limits for children getting active and involved in media, especially social media. I think this generation will struggle with making personal and social connections and interactions, as well as miss out on experience of creativity and imagination that every single child deserves to have. They have their entire life to sit on their phones and post to instagram. As a child, media should not be as prevalent in their lives I think.