Annotated Bibliography

Aliye Karakoyun

Jacob Greene

ENC 1145

22 February 2015

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.”

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."

“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:

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:

“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."

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.