Week 4: Stories and Consumption in the 21th Century

Ok, no more long posts. I promise. Mostly because I am practically 1200% done.

First off is an article originally published in Pediatrics called: Children, Adolescents and Television. In in, increased exposure to television is linked to obesity, self-esteem problems, violence and other assorted social problems, stemming from the fact that kids have trouble determining fantasy from reality at a young age. I was practically raised on television, even if it was mostly educational when I was a kid, so I wouldn't know if there would be a difference between me as I am now and a me that didn't watch as much television. I just know that even when very young, I vastly preferred and used rating systems to determine what I felt would be appropriate for me to watch than censorship methods like v-chips. Trying to prevent me from doing anything just made me determined to get around it. (It was usually access to videogames I snuck around for.) Where I usually find myself on the internet, common wisdom places responsibility on the parents for teaching children the difference between fantasy and reality and how to process the messages they receive.

I also know that coming across an airing on Tiny Toons was like finding the Holy Grail for little me. If only I could tell time back then so I could know when it was on...

It just so happens, educating your kids about critical thinking and media literacy is what the second reading is all about. It is a website hosted by The US National Library of Medicine called Impact of media use on children and youth. It talks not only about what problems can be caused by excessive television watching and video game playing (and uh, internet-ing, too...I guess), but it also talks about where the influence comes from. For instance, television watching encourages obesity since it takes away time from being active. In contrast, programming itself is responsible for distortions in perception of things like violence and sex among children and teenagers. Anyway, lots of good info and advice here for parents and other invested parties.

Then we were supposed to look at Facebook's info site for advertising on it. Yep, companies on twitter and facebook are certainly a thing...being as annoying as ever. But I know that there are plenty of websites out there that run on advertising money; it almost feels like advertising is the annoying, flashy bone structure holding up my favourite websites. That dependency always pissed me off.

SNIFFFFFFFF FUUUUUUUUUU-

Also, we were to look at and essay by Fisch et al. called The Impact of Sesame Street on Preschool Children. They concluded that Sesame Street had positive effects on children concerning mathematical, social and reading skills that last for pretty much their entire lives, no matter where it was aired. They use Sesame Street as an example of the potential of the television medium to be used as a teaching tool, and just be used for social good in general. Alas, with great power comes great responsibility...

Who am I kidding? Muppets are always freakin' great!

We also had to look at an article from grist.org called Julia Louis-Dreyfus and husband Brad Hall discuss their eco-friendly hideaway, which is exactly what it says on the tin. I remember the points presented in class that while the house was designed to be earth friendly, the house was still has its excesses. Luxury can be a little eco-friendly too I guess, better than not being eco-friendly...Well, it is nice to see people involved with organizations for the environment, also. It appears that her husband is more intense about environmental issues, while Louis-Dreyfus is more moderate.