New Media

In this chapter, Berger mentions that, "One of today's great challenges is the influence of electronic media on children". With today's technology quickly changing and growing, its hard for people in our generation to stay away from it. Berger also mentions that six major organizations recommend that parents limit their children's time watching T.v., as well as now allowing media to children under the age of two. With the distractions that electronic media can create for children, I did not find it surprising that parents today, would not follow that recommendation.

I firmly believe that children should spend their time outdoors, rather than being indoors with wifi, t.v., and iPads! My siblings and I always spent our time playing outdoors with the other neighbor children, and I do not remember a time where I wanted to stay inside and watch television. Because of my personal experience, it is a bit frustrating to me when I find my two young nieces inside everyday! With the oldest being four years old and the youngest being one and 3/4 years old, there has not been a visit where I found them without their personal IPads! I always worry that because their eyes are glued to electronic screens, that they will have to get glasses someday. Both of my nieces are also known to be very lazy for their young age. They both do not like to move around and be active, and they also do not like to be outside for too long. Because of their sedentary lifestyle, it was a bit amusing to me when I found my oldest niece getting hives from running around!

Although electronic media should be limited, I think that electronic media in general, should not be accessible to children until they are teenagers and have their brains more developed. When children are attached to media such as youtube, I feel as though it is actually slowing down their development. This is because it can affect their social life (being too immersed in media to want to play), eating habits, and sleep habits (becoming dependent on electronic media in order to eat and be distracted or watch media before sleeping like a schedule).