In the age of increasingly accessible technology I’m sure you have the same problems as I do—how to control how much media your child has access to in a day. Some parents often question why they need to do so—after all, considering the saturation of digital and traditional media that we undergo as adults, isn’t it futile to prevent this in our kids, when that is the kind of world they will be growing up into?
Studies say it is not as futile as we see it. The first two years of a person’s life is the most critical, when brain functions and activity develop. When subjected to the TV, the child may have less time in activities that provide the right stimuli, and more importantly, values. The time before a child turns two is the best time to instill in him the fondness for play, for building relationships and introduce to him the basic concepts of critical thinking. Are parents really willing to turn over this responsibility to a machine?
TV is of course not at all that evil. In fact it is amoral—it has no values of itself. Any semblance of value that it may have should be the values of gatekeepers—people who choose what will be shown on TV. They are the editors of TV programming.
Unfortunately, decisions made by these people are no longer governed by values but of profit. Violence and sex sells. Even the whole structure of TV is dependent on the show’s ability to sell products in its time slot. So there are no longer any gatekeepers—anyone who wants to make money can rush through that proverbial gate.
As saif however, TV is amoral and merely a tool. Nuclear fission may be used to power cities and communities at low cost, or it may be installed in a military device that can be used as leverage when negotiating in the international scene. Used the proper way, the television can be used to augment the ability and function of educators. It is a force multiplier. Imagine how many people are able to learn the alphabet when it is presented via television, as opposed to a teacher teaching a student one on one?
Shows on things that matter—like current events, nature and man’s role in degrading it among other things are subjects that can be spread easily through the medium of television. We have come such a long way from the 50’s—and one of the more obvious indicators that communication and the transmission of ideas has evolved is the existence of memes. Memes are packets of culture that are passed along—and these days, memes travel quite fast. One meme generated from one end of the globe can readily spread to another continent within seconds thanks to the Internet. Imagine if that tool used to spread memes can be used to spread all sorts of beneficial ideas. It is happening now but there is a problem of gatekeeping that has been mentioned awhile ago.
So why limit a child’s TV viewing activity? Well you have something called ubiquitous assimilation. Has media ever come to a point for you where you suddenly want to shut everything off? That’s one of the explanations why people have to take a break from Facebook every once in a while. The bombardment of all these ideas and images may be too much and the mind needs to be able to do its own editing or process what it receives. With ubiquitous assimilation, even the most useless of information is crammed by media into the heads of people, that the person in question’s ability to think critically, to form sound opinions and speak is impaired by the barrage of invading ideas.
You can strengthen your child’s mind by building his sense of values and ability to think critically at an early age, that he can be the gatekeeper of his mind in his own right. And you can start that by training him to choose what he watches on TV.
Studies say it is not as futile as we see it. The first two years of a person’s life is the most critical, when brain functions and activity develop. When subjected to the TV, the child may have less time in activities that provide the right stimuli, and more importantly, values. The time before a child turns two is the best time to instill in him the fondness for play, for building relationships and introduce to him the basic concepts of critical thinking. Are parents really willing to turn over this responsibility to a machine?
TV is of course not at all that evil. In fact it is amoral—it has no values of itself. Any semblance of value that it may have should be the values of gatekeepers—people who choose what will be shown on TV. They are the editors of TV programming.
Unfortunately, decisions made by these people are no longer governed by values but of profit. Violence and sex sells. Even the whole structure of TV is dependent on the show’s ability to sell products in its time slot. So there are no longer any gatekeepers—anyone who wants to make money can rush through that proverbial gate.
As saif however, TV is amoral and merely a tool. Nuclear fission may be used to power cities and communities at low cost, or it may be installed in a military device that can be used as leverage when negotiating in the international scene. Used the proper way, the television can be used to augment the ability and function of educators. It is a force multiplier. Imagine how many people are able to learn the alphabet when it is presented via television, as opposed to a teacher teaching a student one on one?
Shows on things that matter—like current events, nature and man’s role in degrading it among other things are subjects that can be spread easily through the medium of television. We have come such a long way from the 50’s—and one of the more obvious indicators that communication and the transmission of ideas has evolved is the existence of memes. Memes are packets of culture that are passed along—and these days, memes travel quite fast. One meme generated from one end of the globe can readily spread to another continent within seconds thanks to the Internet. Imagine if that tool used to spread memes can be used to spread all sorts of beneficial ideas. It is happening now but there is a problem of gatekeeping that has been mentioned awhile ago.
So why limit a child’s TV viewing activity? Well you have something called ubiquitous assimilation. Has media ever come to a point for you where you suddenly want to shut everything off? That’s one of the explanations why people have to take a break from Facebook every once in a while. The bombardment of all these ideas and images may be too much and the mind needs to be able to do its own editing or process what it receives. With ubiquitous assimilation, even the most useless of information is crammed by media into the heads of people, that the person in question’s ability to think critically, to form sound opinions and speak is impaired by the barrage of invading ideas.
You can strengthen your child’s mind by building his sense of values and ability to think critically at an early age, that he can be the gatekeeper of his mind in his own right. And you can start that by training him to choose what he watches on TV.
