Aliye Karakoyun
Abstract:
With the advent of television in the late
1920’s, the world and the lives of many individuals were changed. Now rather
than playing outside children choose to stay in a room and watch television and
not let their imaginations wander outside of the box in their living rooms.
Therefore, I found it fascinating that with this new realm of technology we were
evolving in such a way and not even realize it. In this sense, I wanted to
incorporate in my video the ways in which children specifically, are affected
with this medium. My video will encompass how television hinders both the
mental and physical development of children and infants. Through the aid of a
pediatric journal, I came to collect many sources explicating the evidence of
how the development of the brains of infants and children are altered and how their
brains are in the need of physical reality rather than “screen-time”.
Essentially children cannot differentiate between the real versus the virtual
world therefore they believe everything they see, which results in aggression
and violence. The physical health of children is hindered through their
immobility, which contributes to increasing obesity problems. Children who
watch television live in an enclosed world in the absence of reality. In my
video I want to list all of these facts on a black screen with white writing,
this effect I believe will add to its compelling message. During our spring
break if I get the chance I want to visit the elementary school that my sister
is a teacher at, and interview the teachers in her school and get their
opinions on this issue. I believe the opinions of others in addition to the
facts that are going to be portrayed in the beginning of the video will provide
an all-encompassing message of the negative effects of television in the lives
of children.
Annotations:
Source
1:
Block,
Tabetha. "Is Television Harmful to Children?" 8 (2010): 91-94. Web. 22
Feb. 2015.
This source is a journal article that
discusses the harmful nature of television, and how it affects children. It
highlights how TV and the concept of what is shown on TV has changed over the
decades and this change, such as more violence and more promiscuous images,
alters the brains of young children who are exposed to TV every single day. The
author, Tabetha Block, is very effective in citing renowned individuals and
studies that have been done, and I am aiming to utilize the information that
she extensively provides and details. Some of the information from her article
I want to use is the study done called the National Television Violence Study,
which found that the violence portrayed on TV encourages children to grasp
aggressive behavior, and the more they identify with the aggressive character,
the more likely the child will model the actions of that character. This source
therefore relates to my project because it provides much evidence for the theme
of my project, which is how television ultimately changed childhood. This
source is essentially different from the other sources because it does not only
give examples from one study and one view point but incorporates different
aspects of the dangers of watching TV. It cites different studies that are done
on the issue and also quotes from pediatricians who speak of the dangers of
extensively being glued to a screen. For example, it explicates a condition
that arose with the advent of TV called the Alpha State, which is tied with
childhood obesity due to the many hours spent being immobile in front of a TV.
Quote
I want to use from this source:
"Ron
Kaufman says in his article, “How Television Images Affect Children,” “Watching
Television is a passive event. Children […] remain completely immobile while
viewing […]” This is also known as the Alpha State…the so called “couch
potato”."
“Recent studies show that children age two through eighteen spend more time watching TV than any other activity, with the exception of sleeping.”
“Watching television deadens a child’s ability for creative thinking; of being able to create an internal picture within themselves rather than visualize external pictures (from TV) which are imprinted in their minds.”
“Recent studies show that children age two through eighteen spend more time watching TV than any other activity, with the exception of sleeping.”
“Watching television deadens a child’s ability for creative thinking; of being able to create an internal picture within themselves rather than visualize external pictures (from TV) which are imprinted in their minds.”
Source
2:
Boyse, Kyla.
"Television and Children." Television (TV) and Children: Your
Child.
University of Michigan Health System,
Aug. 2010. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.
This source, provided by the University
of Michigan, gives insight on the effect of watching TV from a young age. It
first begins out with the potential “good sides” of television but goes onto
explicate that TV has caused more harm then good. This source is very useful
due to the fact that the whole website is in a list format, therefore it is
easier for me to attain information about the presence of TV in the lives of
children. Each bullet point offers a statistic or a fact about the harm TV is
doing to children, it describes a variety of topics such as brain development,
violence and aggression, performance in school, children’s attitudes,
stereotyping, and fear and trauma from shows watched on TV. This source relates
to my video because I want to list statistics and information about the effects
of television in the lives of children, and this source provides a variety of
different problems and I believe it to be very informative and cautionary. This
source differs from the many others that I listed because it is the only source
in which a variety of facts are listed in bullet points and is clear in it’s
explication of the issue of watching television.
Quote
I want to use from this source:
"It may be tempting to put your infant or
toddler in front of the television, especially to watch shows created just for
children under age two. But the American Academy of Pediatrics says: Don't
do it!
“An
average American child will see 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 murders on TV
by age 18”
“71%
of 8- to 18-year-olds have a TV in their bedroom.”
“Kids
with a TV in their bedroom spend an average of almost 1.5 hours more per day
watching TV than kids without a TV in the bedroom.”
“Many
parents encourage their toddlers to watch television.”
Source
3:
Christakis,
Dimitri A., MD. "The Effects of Fast-Paced Cartoons." Pediatrics.
University
of Washington, 12 Sept. 2011. Web. 22
Feb. 2015.
This source was published in an official
journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics and provides insight from a
successful pediatrician, Dimitri Christakis. Christakis begins by stating the
average use of television by families and the grand change of its use
throughout the centuries. He writes about different cartoons and says that based
on the show being watched the effects of television can be good or bad. He
incorporates his own observations in hospital settings, he mentions examples of
his own patients, and he cites studies done on this matter of watching
television and media in the lives of children. One thing I can use from this
source is how he wrote the introduction of the article; he started with fascinating
statistics of how much television is watched by children. This source is
different from the other sources in that it actually integrates the contents of
television and what is being watched while the other sources described the
dangers of television, Christakis explicates the dangers of what is ‘within’
that television. Also Christakis has a Ted Talk about this issue that is very
informative about the effects of media on children, he includes many graphics
and graphs elucidating the negative effects of TV watching on the development
of children, mentally and physically.
Quote
I want to use from this source:
"Although the typical child began watching television at 4 years of age in 1970 and consumed ∼3 to 4 hours/day, the typical child today begins watching at 4 months of age and is engaged with media for up to 8 hours/day."
"Although the typical child began watching television at 4 years of age in 1970 and consumed ∼3 to 4 hours/day, the typical child today begins watching at 4 months of age and is engaged with media for up to 8 hours/day."
“This has led
some to distinguish between today’s generation of children, the “digital
natives,” because they have been immersed in media since birth, and their
parents, who will re- main “digital immigrants.””
“Connecting
fast-paced television viewing to deficits in executive function, regard- less
of whether they are transient, has profound implications for children’s cognitive
and social development that need to be considered and reacted to.”
Source
4:
Johnson,
Susan R., MD. “Strangers in our Homes: TV and our Children’s Minds.”
Waldorf Library, 1999. Web. 22 Feb.
2015.
This source is an article written by a
pediatrician, Susan Johnson M.D., who in the midst of a technology controlled
world, researched how allowing children to watch television, altered children’s
growth and learning potential. She explicates how the brain developments of
children are hindered as an effect of not interacting with the natural world.
Johnson illuminates the parts of the brain that are damaged as we do not use
the five senses to interact with what we are seeing, therefore children are
confused in the core of all of this sensory information that is being thrown at
them. In the end of the article, she goes further to explain how to help our
children’s brain to develop. I believe that this source provides sufficient information
about how the development of a child’s brain is damaged with the time they
spend watching TV. As she has done her research in Behavioral and Developmental
Pediatrics, I believe Johnson is also a trustful source to utilize in my video.
I could put the information that she provided on a black screen in white
writing to make it compelling and to inform the audience about the damages of
“screen-time”. I think this source differs from my other sources because in the
end of the article, Johnson highlights what we could do to fix this damage and
how we could stop children from watching TV. The other sources would only speak
of the dangers, and I believe with this source I found ways to improve the
aspect of my video by enlightening the audience of the steps they could take to
better raise their children.
Quote I want to use from this source:
Quote I want to use from this source:
TV rots
the senses in the head!
It kills
the imagination dead!
It clogs
and clutters up the mind!
It makes
a child so dull and blind.
He can no
longer understand a fantasy,
A
fairyland!
His brain
becomes as soft as cheese!
His
powers of thinking rust and freeze!
An
excerpt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
By
Roald Dahl, 1964
“As
human beings, we become detached from the real world by watching television. We
sit in a comfortable chair, in a warm room, with plenty to eat and watch a show
about people who are homeless, cold and hungry. Our hearts go out to them, but
we do nothing.” – Susan Johnson
“We
don’t allow our child to talk to strangers, yet through television we allow
strangers into the minds and souls of our children everyday.”- Miles Everett,
Ph.D, How Television Poisons Children’s
Minds
“Viewing television represents an endless,
purposeless, physically unfulfilling activity for a child. Unlike eating until
one is full or sleeping until one is no longer tired, watching television has
no built-in endpoint. It makes a child want more and more without ever being
satisfied.”
Source
5:
Lillard,
Angeline S., PhD, and Jennifer Peterson, BA. "The Immediate Impact of
Different Types of Television on Young
Children's Executive Function." Pediatrics. University of Virgina,
12 Sept. 2011. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.
This source is an article pertaining to a
study done on children measuring how fast-paced television shows influence
preschool-aged children’s executive functioning. The study uses sixty
4-year-olds, randomly assigning them to watch either an educational cartoon, a
TV cartoon, or drawing for 9 minutes. The study found that the children who
watched the fast-paced television cartoon performed worse on the execution
function tasks than the children in the other two groups. This study elucidates
that even only 9 minutes of viewing fast-paced television cartoons has an
immediate negative effect on 4-year-olds. This study was also cited in one of
my other sources and that is why I am using this source to further delve into
the research and use it as an example to prove the profound negative effects of
TV on children. This source differs from my other sources in that, it gives
insight on a study done and it focuses only on this study while in my other
sources there were a plethora of data from other sources and studies done on
this matter.
Quote I want to use from this source:
Quote I want to use from this source:
“Just
9 minutes of viewing a fast-paced television car- toon had immediate negative
effects on 4-year-olds’ executive function. Parents should be aware that
fast-paced television shows could at least temporarily impair young children’s
executive function.”
“Preschool-aged
children watch 90 minutes of television daily…”
“Entertainment
television is particularly associated with long-term attention problems”
Source
6:
"Media
Use by Children Younger Than 2 Years." Pediatrics 128.5 (2011):
1040-045.
Pediatrics. 5 Nov. 2011. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.
This source is an article that was
published in the American Academy of Pediatrics journal that encompasses a wide
array of details and information about how the media is affecting children
development. This article is specific in its nature, because it pertains
specifically to children who are younger than 2 years of age. This article is a
result of extensive research done on the matter of how media affects child development.
Although my video only concentrates on television alone, this article provides
many details on the effects of television as well. First it describes the
mistakes of parents and how they approach this issue of allowing, “screen-time”
for their infants. Later it goes into all-encompassing detail on the question
of children learning from the media, and negates this ideology and suggests
that infants learn better through interacting with reality rather than the
virtual world. Later the article describes the health and developmental
consequences, and what parents should watch out for. This source is very useful
for my video because along with the information it essentially provides at the
end it also provides recommendations on how to responsibly deal with it.
Something that is different about this source is that it provides a list of
recommendations for both pediatricians and parents on how to better raise
children and how to better inform people of this issue.
Quote I want to use from this source:
"Many families have reported that they have a television on at least 6 hours/ day or that a television is “always on” as background noise. Thirty-nine percent of families with infants and young children have a television on constantly."
“Currently, 90% of parents report that their children younger than 2 years watch some form of electronic media.”
“Two studies have shown that infants as young as 12 months learn emotional responses after media viewing.”
"2 studies have found that watching a program such as “Sesame Street” has a negative effect on language for children younger than 2 years..."
"Fourteen percent of children aged 6 to 23 months watch 2 or more hours/day of media."
Quote I want to use from this source:
"Many families have reported that they have a television on at least 6 hours/ day or that a television is “always on” as background noise. Thirty-nine percent of families with infants and young children have a television on constantly."
“Currently, 90% of parents report that their children younger than 2 years watch some form of electronic media.”
“Two studies have shown that infants as young as 12 months learn emotional responses after media viewing.”
"2 studies have found that watching a program such as “Sesame Street” has a negative effect on language for children younger than 2 years..."
"Fourteen percent of children aged 6 to 23 months watch 2 or more hours/day of media."
Videos:
Video 1: The
Future of Work
After
watching this specific video, I was sure of how I wanted to construct my video.
Beginning with questioning how work was without Internet and advanced
technology, the video encompasses how things have changed from that time to
now. The words are displayed on the screen one by one each with a transition
sound and different transition effect. Since I also want to incorporate facts
without me talking I thought I could also use this trick, making the presented
information for compelling. One this I did not like about this video was the
music that was used, it was slow and I believe with the kind of interesting
data the video provided, it needed to have more of a fast and moving background
music. Along with the facts that it provided the video also portrayed images
for the viewers to better understand and imagine the data, therefore instead of
just using a black screen, I could also exploit images in my video.
Video 2: Did You Know?
There
are many of these “Did You Know?” videos on YouTube that explicate the
progression of information technology in the world around us. I personally am
fascinated at how these videos present the information that they have. From
beginning to the end, they do not bore the audience because the information
they present is compelling and unique and the way they present it, in a gradual
manner along with the rhythm of the background music, is effective in grabbing
attention. The same image of “Did You Know” is repeated within the video, which
allows the viewers to question themselves after a midst of data is given to
them. At the end it ends with “So What Does it All Mean?” which leaves the
viewer on a hanger to question everything that they have just seen. I love how
this video does such a successful job at providing the data and also gets you
thinking, I want to incorporate the same aspects in my video. I want the viewer
to question and also be fascinated with the information presented. Also the
background music is fast, which explicates the intensity of the information
that is presented, and I can also think about doing that with my video. I
could, like this video did, end with a captivating quote or saying that gets
the viewer thinking about the information that I provided them with.
Video 3: How
The Sun Sees You
This
video showed the people walking in the street how they looked in ultraviolet lighting.
I like how they structured the video, first they write what they are going to
do on a black screen with white writing and then they refer back to the video.
I believe this is an effective way of illuminating their purpose. It gets the
viewer excited because it switches back from the black screen to the video.
This is the concept I want to use from this video, after writing some facts I
want to show videos of children watching television and this footage will help
prove my point after the facts on the black screen. Also you cannot hear the
sounds of the people in the video, and so I am thinking about doing the same
thing, only using a background music that will block the sound of the video
being shown, this will give the video a smooth texture and so it would not
shift back and forth from people speaking in the video and the music once the
black screen is shown.
Video 4: An Ever
Changing World
This
video was the most interesting out of all of the videos I watched. I was caught
on immediately because of all of the interesting details and animations the
video provided about the “ever-changing world” around us. I really like the
background music that this video uses and possibly I can use the same music for
my own video. I also really like how they pause after each animation, which
gives you a while to think about what you have just read as you look at the
black screen. This video also is good in that it does not have anyone talking
in the background and that is how I also want to structure my video.
