In Chapter 1, Zipes mainly talks about how our culture for children is harmful from the very beginning with high amounts of mass media and having an elite controlled environment which includes huge conglomerates having control. The mass media targets children since they want them to become future consumers of their products and become loyal to them later in life. Most plots of books and/or movies are predictable which "many of the products represent a dumbing down of children rather than a challenge to their creativity" Pg. 9. This will not help children to become responsible when they are older, they will just be consumers and won't have knowledge about the hidden effects since they will not be able to think and come up with logical ideas on their own. A question that stood out to me was, "Does TV raise children as much as parents do?" This is a scary thought, but with the amount of TV that chidren watch these days and the number of advertisements shown, I would believe it. What else helps contribute to cultural homogenization? And what can be done to help reduce it and help kids be more creative in their learning? I believe that the busy lifestyles of parents contributes to the less time they spend with their children, and the high amount of TV that children watch. If parents had more free time, they could help more with regulating the amount of TV being watched and with their childrens learning. Cultural homogenization is dumbing down children since they do not get to use their creative minds and actually think for themselves. They are getting fed ideas of products through the media. It is sad that this is what our children are growing up to be, not being able to think creatively on their own and becoming a comodity in our society.
I agree with what you are saying about how the business of our lives today hugely contributes to the amount of mass media that our children are subjected to. However, I don't think that this is neccessarily a completely horrible things because no matter what kind of imaginary things they are shown or how predictable they are at least their minds are being introduced to things other then what they experience in their everyday lives. This can open the door to them creating their own imaginary ideas and help to establish their creativity for later on in life. I think parents should encourage their children to come up with their own ideas and to have fun. There should be other sources from which their creativity sprouts not just movies and books based on the movies. Otherwise, their creativity will be stunted as far as coming up with ideas on their own. What Zipes said about going to the movies I found very true. We are bombarded with ads for upcoming movies and then when we go to the movies we then have several ads for other movies shown to us while waiting for the movie to start. Therefore having us want to go back and see the newer one and the cycle continues. I think that the violence issue Zipes brought up about how the media presented to children helps them to just except it as part of life and to become jaded is very true. I know from personal experience that I am jaded about violence in movies and somewhat about violence in the news.
ncarron, That is deffinatly something I have not thought about. What you are saying about the mass media really does paint a good picture. I agree with most of what you are saying, however the media is only a base that may contribute to how parents raise their children. It is scary to think that the media has alot to do with how children are raised, however that is only a a small part when raising a child. For example I have 3 other siblings. My sister are significantly older then me and my brother. My sisters were never allowed to watch T.V. and were only subject to read what my parents wanted them to read. Six years later my parents has my brother then me following them. My parents raised my brother and I in a more liberal matter. We grew up with the big screen T.V that we were glued to. I would watch the news with my father, soaps with my mother, and violent action films with my brother. All four of us grew up to be college students. My three siblings are in their masters and I am almost done with my B.A. Soon I will also get a masters. The funny thing is both my sisters when into entertainment, film, and T.V, while my brother is a pastor and I will be a social worker. I agree that Creativity is important to the minds of the child. My parents also put us in performing arts at a very young age. Both of you do have very good supporting points. I agree that children should think for themselves at times. The media was never used as a method of raising children but sadly parents utilize it. Baby books are a prime example. If "socity" says a person should raise their child one way the members in society do. Not all children should be raised the same. All children are differnt.
I spent this past weekend in Disneyland, and was reading the section on the way there. The ideas Zipes outlines about children's hunger for products could not be seen more clearly than while wandering around "The Happiest Place on Earth." The mere fact that we refer to it as such illustrates the point. After Zipes introduced the idea, I seem to see it everywhere. Disney characters and TV jingles are as much a part of my world as anything else. I can tell you all the names of the Disney princesses, but I have a hard time naming any of the key political players, despite hearing about them on the news almost everyday. AS a child, I had friends who *gasp* didn't watch TV, and it became an unfortunate social handicap. "Ohh...you didn't see Full House? Then you wouldn't know what we're talking about." Even today, I feel like a lot of my humor, and understanding of how the world works has been gleaned from TV.
5 comments:
In Chapter 1, Zipes mainly talks about how our culture for children is harmful from the very beginning with high amounts of mass media and having an elite controlled environment which includes huge conglomerates having control. The mass media targets children since they want them to become future consumers of their products and become loyal to them later in life. Most plots of books and/or movies are predictable which "many of the products represent a dumbing down of children rather than a challenge to their creativity" Pg. 9. This will not help children to become responsible when they are older, they will just be consumers and won't have knowledge about the hidden effects since they will not be able to think and come up with logical ideas on their own. A question that stood out to me was, "Does TV raise children as much as parents do?" This is a scary thought, but with the amount of TV that chidren watch these days and the number of advertisements shown, I would believe it. What else helps contribute to cultural homogenization? And what can be done to help reduce it and help kids be more creative in their learning? I believe that the busy lifestyles of parents contributes to the less time they spend with their children, and the high amount of TV that children watch. If parents had more free time, they could help more with regulating the amount of TV being watched and with their childrens learning. Cultural homogenization is dumbing down children since they do not get to use their creative minds and actually think for themselves. They are getting fed ideas of products through the media. It is sad that this is what our children are growing up to be, not being able to think creatively on their own and becoming a comodity in our society.
I agree with what you are saying about how the business of our lives today hugely contributes to the amount of mass media that our children are subjected to. However, I don't think that this is neccessarily a completely horrible things because no matter what kind of imaginary things they are shown or how predictable they are at least their minds are being introduced to things other then what they experience in their everyday lives. This can open the door to them creating their own imaginary ideas and help to establish their creativity for later on in life. I think parents should encourage their children to come up with their own ideas and to have fun. There should be other sources from which their creativity sprouts not just movies and books based on the movies. Otherwise, their creativity will be stunted as far as coming up with ideas on their own. What Zipes said about going to the movies I found very true. We are bombarded with ads for upcoming movies and then when we go to the movies we then have several ads for other movies shown to us while waiting for the movie to start. Therefore having us want to go back and see the newer one and the cycle continues. I think that the violence issue Zipes brought up about how the media presented to children helps them to just except it as part of life and to become jaded is very true. I know from personal experience that I am jaded about violence in movies and somewhat about violence in the news.
ncarron,
That is deffinatly something I have not thought about. What you are saying about the mass media really does paint a good picture. I agree with most of what you are saying, however the media is only a base that may contribute to how parents raise their children. It is scary to think that the media has alot to do with how children are raised, however that is only a a small part when raising a child. For example I have 3 other siblings. My sister are significantly older then me and my brother. My sisters were never allowed to watch T.V. and were only subject to read what my parents wanted them to read. Six years later my parents has my brother then me following them. My parents raised my brother and I in a more liberal matter. We grew up with the big screen T.V that we were glued to. I would watch the news with my father, soaps with my mother, and violent action films with my brother. All four of us grew up to be college students. My three siblings are in their masters and I am almost done with my B.A. Soon I will also get a masters. The funny thing is both my sisters when into entertainment, film, and T.V, while my brother is a pastor and I will be a social worker. I agree that Creativity is important to the minds of the child. My parents also put us in performing arts at a very young age. Both of you do have very good supporting points. I agree that children should think for themselves at times. The media was never used as a method of raising children but sadly parents utilize it. Baby books are a prime example. If "socity" says a person should raise their child one way the members in society do. Not all children should be raised the same. All children are differnt.
I spent this past weekend in Disneyland, and was reading the section on the way there. The ideas Zipes outlines about children's hunger for products could not be seen more clearly than while wandering around "The Happiest Place on Earth." The mere fact that we refer to it as such illustrates the point. After Zipes introduced the idea, I seem to see it everywhere. Disney characters and TV jingles are as much a part of my world as anything else. I can tell you all the names of the Disney princesses, but I have a hard time naming any of the key political players, despite hearing about them on the news almost everyday. AS a child, I had friends who *gasp* didn't watch TV, and it became an unfortunate social handicap. "Ohh...you didn't see Full House? Then you wouldn't know what we're talking about." Even today, I feel like a lot of my humor, and understanding of how the world works has been gleaned from TV.
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