The influence of television on kids

In the United States, 99% of households own a television set. The average number of televisions per dwelling is 2.24 and, in any case, there are three televisions or more in two houses out of three.
On average, every TV in the United States stays on for six hours and 47 minutes a day and two out of three Americans eat watching TV.

Credits

---

In recent years, children and teenagers spend many hours in front of the television throughout the day, even if the greater use takes place in the evening.
The peak of watching is for children (4-7 years) between 8:15 pm and 9:30 pm, while for older children (8-14 years old) between 8:45 pm and 9:45 pm.
At 11.00, about a million more boys are hypnotized in front of the TV.

"TV is the object of evening consumption but mostly solitary".
There has been much discussion about the role that television plays in determining and inducing models and values ​​of children and adolescents.

Television has more than one power: in the first place it creates dependence, that is, it makes people unable to live without.
Many people are so dependent on television that they meet the criteria with which the concept of addiction. In fact, as the psychologist Robert Kubey states, the big TV consumers use television with the same functional ways in which a drug addict uses psychotropic substances. In fact, these individuals:

They use television as a sedative:

§ They look at everything indiscriminately and without a prior decision.

§ They lose every control mechanism of the will.

§ During the vision they are often angry at themselves for watching too much TV but at the same time they are not able to reduce the amount of time allocated for such activity.

§ They can not stop seeing it when they really want it.

§ They feel guilty when they come discovered to watch TV

They are, of course, extreme cases of psychological dependence on the television medium, which seems to have for these subjects and in principle for all individuals, relaxing properties, cathartic, alienation from reality.

According to Murray the maximum consumption of television takes place around 12 years and then decreases slowly during adolescence to leave room for other media that are passionate about young people, such as radio and music.

Credits

---

The motivations for the use of TV

Compared to the children and adolescent speak of a triple order of motivations that correspond to different uses of television: a use for the purpose of entertainment, one for information purposes and, finally, an instrumental use.
The research conducted in recent years in this regard, have shown that the explicit motivations of children and adolescents compared to the use of TV and consequently the choice of programs, are oriented by the needs of play and entertainment, exploration and knowledge, fantasy and adventure.
To these needs are added support, reassurance, increased levels of self-esteem, relief from anxiety and worries, and finally the ritualistic accompaniment of daily activities.

First of all, a fun-evasive function, even if TV, in addition to being a fun, is often a cultural and informative tool.
Therefore, a function capable of stimulating the imagination and activating mechanisms of identification.
Finally, an instrument of self-knowledge and characterization and confirmation of one's sexual identity.
All this without ignoring the specific interests of the spectators, for each of which exposure is selective and the prevailing effect is the reinforcement of pre-existing opinions, attitudes and behaviors.

An interesting element that derives from these research is the attribution of a meaning of social sharing to the use of TV, which can also represent a moment of interaction and aggregation with peers.
In addition to individual motivations, particular interest has also been given to the factors that act in the processes of social identity construction.
This aspect is of great importance for the pre-adolescent and adolescent public sector, for which the sharing of norms, models and behaviors with the peer group is extremely important.

Subsequent investigations have also highlighted the possible dysfunctional uses of the television medium.

Let us highlights two main types of social use of TV: a structural use and a relational use.

When TV is used in a structural way, it can be a reassuring element of company and a means of organizing activities and punctuating time. When the use of television is relational, it can act as a communication facilitator, provide opportunities for physical and emotional contact, potentially useful examples of interpersonal relationships (social learning) and, finally, to establish relationships of power or roles.

The use of television can be traced to three possible styles of consumption: TV-passion, in which the attention and time that the kids dedicate to TV are total and unconditional, strongly motivated by an expected appointment and to which they never fail; TV-tapestry that represents, instead, a visual and sound background for other activities: it is seen in passing and only rarely, in the presence of strong signals, draws the user's attention; TV-tappabuchi that indicates an activity that takes place in the absence of a better alternative, in the presence of which it is promptly replaced.

Television seems able to satisfy many of the basic needs for people, including security, through a particular tendency to repetitive circularity, to the uniformity of the programs that has something reassuring and restful in itself capable of soothing anxiety, stress, fear, disorientation, fatigue.
In this regard, subjects in the developmental age represent a particular audience: the possible levels of interaction, in this case, are important for the function that is not only integrative but, above all, a substitute that the television medium can assume within the relational dynamics. and social issues of children and adolescents.
When this happens, TV seems to assume the pre-eminent role of emotional-affective response to individual and social needs, becoming a secure, known and shared social role in which they listen to their personal emotional requests.

Credits

---

The preferences and contents of television programs

The television viewing of children and young people is predominantly competent and focused: the young audience knows well his favorite programs and the characters that populate them.
Among the different genres, television fiction is one that gathers the widest preferences.

Teenagers and children are usually heavy consumers of many genres of fiction, with the exception of dramas and soap operas and soap operas, genres preferred by another category of audience. In particular, the sit-com genre is the favorite in school age until early adolescence, when action and adventure proposals start to be cited as favorites.
Many different theoretical approaches have highlighted the importance of the relationship between users and TV personalities, highlighting the different functions they can perform: the mediation of the effects, the learning of models and particular visions of the world and of the surrounding reality, of leisure and company.

However, it remains to be defined which characters can perform these functions and in what perspective they can be analyzed.
Some authors have referred to the concept of identification, which refers to the desire to be that particular character: this leads the viewer to share the perspective and experience its history.

An extremism of this condition would induce the viewer to want to imitate his character, to be like him in real life in a process of illusory identification.

Finally, a more general concept is that of the affinity that comes from the preference of a character. Regarding this notion, some research indicates a preference by younger people for programs that propose family characters and settings, which belong to the same ethnic background, to the same social class, same age and gender.

These indications would seem to be in contrast with the success of broadcasts that present, instead, socio-cultural realities profoundly different from those of the spectators.
In reality, each of the choices, the one that favors familiar contents and the one that is oriented towards reality opposed to one's own, find an explanation in the satisfaction of a need: the first of reassurance based on the presence of known elements; the second of exploration and adventure given by the discovery of new realities.

At the base of the choices and representations of the TV characters, it is possible to identify various factors related to the character, the program and the spectator.

Credits

---

The contents of television programs

Television can play an important role in the processes of social construction of the reality of preadolescents through the models and cultural content it conveys.
In particular, the representation of social, sexual differences, professional roles and ethnic characteristics can be very important for some groups of the public, such as younger users, who are less equipped with cultural and cognitive tools and therefore can not perform evaluations. on the basis of direct knowledge and personal experience.

The problems concerning the contents proposed by TV, are related to both quality and quantity.
The representation of reality presented by television fiction is, on the whole, reductive, simplified, stereotyped.
The way in which subjects belonging to an ethnic group, sex or age group are represented, is more relevant than the number of times or the number of subjects that are represented and influences more on the formation of a positive or negative image of the character and hence its social category or ethnicity.

In this regard, images and impressions that become part of the social fabric.
In particular, the influence of television on the ethnicity and the stereotypes that can create in the younger public are particularly dangerous as children and preadolescents, who have had fewer opportunities for social interaction with ethnic minorities, form their perceptions rather than through personal experience, through television. If the transmitted message is distorted, the perception of reality will also be wrong .

Credits

---

The role of media in development

The influence of television characters on the development of preadolescents has been much neglected in the past: some years ago the series of figures that could influence socialization and the development of children and adolescents was restricted to parents, relatives, friends and teachers.
In the following period, this figure was upset by the advent of the mass media.
Today, young people are constantly exposed to a massive number of figures capable of influencing and modifying their behavior patterns, their convictions and opinions, first of all TV, followed by radio, popular culture, printed media and the internet. .
The role of the media has an undeniable impact on theoretical development models.

One of the effects of considerable media exposure is the increase in relevance of favorite TV personalities in young people's lives.
A recent study of the growing influence of celebrities on young people proves that 75% of the subjects examined show a strong attraction towards their favorite television personality, perceived by themselves as an "idol" capable of influencing some aspects of their values ​​and values. their own feelings, their own concept of self and their self-esteem, mainly towards mostly positive directions, for example encouraging them to undertake creative occupations or sports or social activities.

Another type of attachment to remote figures also known as a "secondary attachment" that plays a transitional role during preadolescence: it is a moment that reflects the transition from attachment to the caregivers, parents , attachment to the peer group which, typical of this age group, constitutes an increase in personal and emotional autonomy.
In addition to covering the role of an identifying model, secondary attachment can also change social performance and emotional functions, especially when it is romantic in nature.

For example, a "loving" attachment, the typical childish and adolescent crush, towards a singer or a fictional protagonist, can encourage the young person to put into practice an imaginary relationship, a bit like a "rehearsal" of an adult relationship.

Credits

---

The effects of TV on the self-esteem of preadolescents

An important factor of individual vulnerability is represented by the age of the subject.
As already mentioned, preadolescents are particularly receptive to messages of this type sent constantly by mass media, social feed-backs and other external sources. The self-esteem of preadolescents is a crucial mix of self-acceptance, more or less strict internal and external standards, social feed-backs (coming more and more from the peer group).
The physical side, as well as the way of dressing and putting on, is particularly considered by the representatives of this age group and the mass media heavily influence the body image, dictating the law in terms of fashion, beauty, hairstyle, prestanza.

Studies on television imagery and beauty as an ideal have led to the conclusion that exposure to these images, especially in young subjects, leads to increased states of bodily dissatisfaction.

In this regard, the research work of Hargreaves and Tiggemann is of fundamental interest.
The focus of this study is to examine the effects of television images concerning physical attractiveness on young girls and boys and the consequent emergence of states of physical dissatisfaction.
Beyond this parameter, the research aims to evaluate the activation of appearance patterns.
The cognitive processes and models deriving from the body image, suggest that individuals develop patterns of appearance, through which they introject beliefs, opinions, assumptions about appearance and its implications.

All have patterns of appearance, but not all have the same level of satisfaction, in the same way that everyone has patterns of behavior but in some individuals are particularly elaborate and have a greater relevance than others.
Therefore, many subjects who have particularly high patterns of appearance invest much more in the bodily imaginary than others.
These schemes, once activated, affect the emotional processes and those related to information.
Consequently, the perception of the appearance and therefore of the body image is controlled by these appearance patterns.

The results of the research by Hargreaves and Tiggemann show that the ideal image of beauty proposed by television has a great influence on the level of physical dissatisfaction of preadolescents and adolescents, especially on girls: the subjects who were submitted to television images concerning beauty and physical attributes, reported in the tests administered later, a greater body dissatisfaction with respect to the group which had not been made to view any television image.
This state of dissatisfaction persisted in the subjects for about fifteen minutes after the television image was administered.
Furthermore, in contrast to the authors' hypotheses, the pattern of appearance of the sample of subjects who had seen the video could not control the low level of physical satisfaction.
This inconsistency is probably due to the fact that the patterns of appearance of preadolescents are not sufficiently developed or stable to be able to moderate the effects of television images on the body's self-esteem of the subjects.