Figure 1 shows that shockingly the average two to five year old child spends over thirty two hours a week in front of a screen of some sort, whereas the average six to eleven year old spends less time (twenty eight hours or over). This suggests that parents use media distractions to entertain their children while they are not at school, rather than using more productive activities such as painting or ‘free play’, which can encourage creativity, or reading aloud to their infants, which can help to bond parent and child. A reason for this may be that: ‘’ The increasingly competitive economy is creating an environment where parents are forced to spend longer hours at work and fewer hours with their children. ‘’ (Lisa Dunning – licensed family therapist, specialising in parent/child relationship issues) [9] This suggests that when parents are at home they may not have the enthusiasm or energy to interact with their children, as parents did in the past, especially historically women who stayed home to bring up their children. This produces the question, is it better for women to work in modern day society or is the historical view that women should stay at home, a better approach towards bringing up children?
The graph also shows that infants (two to five year olds) spend more time on average collectively watching television, DVD’s etc. whereas older children spend more time playing on games consoles and on average spend double the time doing so than children aged two to five. This suggests that kids age six to eleven are getting a more productive entertainment as games often require more thinking and concentration than merely watching a film or television program, which requires limited processing.
Figure one [10]:
How does advertising influence/affect us?
Although it seems obvious to focus on the influences of television programs, it also seems appropriate to focus on the television adverts that are shown in between programs. It has been argued that ‘’television adverts are a powerful influence on attitudes’’ (Oskamp 1988). [11] Although a parent is able to choose what programs the child watches, they may not always be able to monitor the adverts shown in the breaks, which also may have a negative influence on a child’s behaviour or cognitions. Tara’s et Al (1989) found that children’s requests for certain foods correlated strongly with the amount of television advertising that the product was currently receiving. [11] This shows that advertising was successful in persuading children and although this study only focused on food, it may also apply to changing the cognitions in situations where other more harmful cognitions may be altered. An example of this is the use of models and ‘’attractive’’ people in advertising which may enable children to perceive themselves as less attractive or indeed put others down for not being an ‘’ideal’’ form of physical attractiveness.
In 2007, fast food was restricted from advertising during children’s television programs, which therefore was intended to decrease the amount of children attracted to, and asking for, fast food. [12]This therefore may have aided the battle for tackling obesity as fewer children will have been attracted to fast food. Ofcom, the broadcast regulator, predicted that this ban would decrease children’s over all exposure to junk food advertising by forty one percent, as children would still have access to this advertising when watching other channels or programs that are not necessarily aimed at young children, for example ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, is a popular program watched by both children and adults. However, in a study which analysed the restrictions three years after they were introduce, they found that the reduction has fallen short of this at an average of thirty seven percent, and for older children, the reduction is only twenty two percent. By reviewing the evaluation of this study, one can see how difficult it is to restrict children from viewing certain products on television, as children are often not only subjected to watch ‘child friendly’ channels, such as CBBC or CITV. This therefore has negative implications, as if fast food advertising has not been easily reduced from child’s viewing, it is perhaps appropriate to generalise these results and argue that other harmful concepts may also influence our children through advertising.
Negative effects of watching Television programs:
Forty three percent of children under the age of two watch television every day. Shockingly, some research has shown that early television viewing has been linked with later attention problems, such as ADHD. The findings stated that, with every hour of television watched daily at ages one and three years of age, the likelihood of the child having attention problems at age seven, increases by almost ten percent [13]. This therefore means that if a child at age one watches, on average, four hours of television a day, they are forty percent more likely to have attention problems at age seven, compared to another child of the same age who watches no or barely any television on a day to day basis. This obviously has massive implications for the child’s future academic development, and shows how the viewing of television from an early age can effect an individual throughout their whole life. If a child develops attention problems from an early age, they therefore will struggle more at school, and be less likely to succeed in school, therefore their whole life will be altered as a result of watching television from an early age.
Zillmans excitation transfer theory (1979) argues that the arousal produced by watching violence on television or negative social interactions, are transferred to real life situations which involve conflict. [14] He argued that the physiological arousal that one may experience when watching violence on television or arguments etc. is a natural process from the central nervous system, previously used for survival, therefore when confronted with a similar situation an individual may transfer this arousal and copy the acts of those seen on television when faced with the same situation. This therefore suggests that children, who watch television programs with violence or arguments in, may be more likely to act antisocially, although only when faced with a similar situation. This therefore may also provide a positive effect as if a child views a person being beaten up on television, they may be able to exert the same behaviours if a similar situation presents itself to them. It has also been argued that as many behaviours in television programs do not have accurate consequences (i.e. a soap star murdering another character is not always punished the way that one may be in real life in order to produce a dramatic effect on the watcher), a younger view may believe that these consequences are real therefore not see the actions of the character as wrong or bad, therefore may be more likely to copy these actions themselves. It should also be noted that television may not always represent true life, but children may not of course understand this. Stanley Rothem et Al has noted that since 1955, television characters have been murdered at a rate 1,000 times higher than murders occur in real life. [15]
Huesmann et Al (2003) found that the viewing of violence on television shows when children were between six to nine years of age, correlated significantly to measures of physical aggression when both the men and women were followed up fifteen years later. They also found that the more an individual identified with a same – sex television character as a child, the more likely they were to copy their violent behaviours. Those boys classed as ‘’high violence viewers’’ when studied as a child, were found to have three times the conviction rate of those classed as low – violence viewers in childhood. This study therefore implies that children do copy aggressive or violent behaviours from television media, especially if they are able to identify with a character through similarities that they may share. Even more shockingly, the senate committee reported that the average American child will view 200,000 violent acts and 16,000 violent murders on television before the age of eighteen. [16] Taking into consideration that theory that viewing violence correlates to future measures of physical aggression, it is implied that if the viewing of violence increases, so will the level of aggression, which has implications for a higher crime rate in the future. However, it could also be argued that if the level of violence viewed on television was reduced, using Huesmann’s study, this implies that future measures of physical aggression may be reduced, which has implications for a lower crime rate in the future.
Another theory which supports Zillmans excitation theory, is a phenomenon referred to as ‘cognitive priming’. Priming means being prompted to react in a certain way that has previously been viewed and stored in the memory, as a result of some sort of trigger which is similar to that of the one viewed before. [17] For example, this means that viewers of violence on the television may store scripts or memories of those violent acts, which are then reacted in real life when similar circumstances present themselves. Murray et Al (2007) have used recent advances in brain scanning to support the idea that scripts are stored in long term memory. [18] They have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare the brain areas that are active when a group of child participants were watching either violence or non-violent films. Murray et Al found that when the children viewed violent films, the areas in the brain responsible for storing episodic memories (long – term memories) was active, where as it was not when the children were watching non – violent films. This implies that scripts from violent films may be stored in the memory for future use, but this study does not explain why this happens in violent situations or how the children may later on use these memories.
Anderson et Al (2007) found the viewing violence on television at preschool age implicated lower predicted academic achievements in girls, but not in boys. [19] They suggested that girls are generally better socialized for school than boys are, and that girls typically are encouraged less to watch violence than boys, and therefore there is typically less violence in feminine television programs aimed at pre-schoolers than there are with masculine television shows. Girls who watch more violence as pre-schoolers therefore are generally less socialized for school. Anderson et Al therefore hypothesised that watching violence on television therefore brings girls down to the same socialization standard as boys when it comes to school.
Not only may watching television have negative effects on the behavioural side of things, but it is also arguably a waste of time, money and effort, that could be spent doing other proactive things, such as reading, working or spending valuable family time together. The average ‘Sky’ package starts from around £20 a month (sky.com/packages), where as with this money you could take a family of four bowling or ice-skating once a month instead. The highest grossing film in 2011 was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part two, which so far has made $381,011,219 which in great British pounds is averagely £247,000,000 [20]. This means that if you take the average price of a cinema ticket now-a-days being roughly five British pounds, about 49,400,000 people went to see that film. To put things into perspective on a more personal scale, the Nielson Research study found that, the average American spends four and a half hours a day watching TV, which, in total, means the average 65 year old has already spent nine years of their life watching television. [21]
On the other hand, it could be argued that because so many people now days watch television daily, people who do not watch television may find themselves becoming isolated from others around them, or even becoming socially outcast as they have nothing to relate to with their peers or associates. It could also be argued that if the theory that children have learnt behaviours through imitating television characters is true, then those who do not watch television and therefore learn the same behaviours as others, may not be socialised into what is seem as ‘’normal’’ or acceptable, therefore this is another way they may become outcast from society.
Positive effects of watching television programs:
Of course, not all programs are negative or anti-social, there are many Television programs that are proactive, such as educational programs (the discovery channel for example) or charity giving programs (i.e. Children in Need), which may have positive effects on children and teach them either educationally or emotionally. Programs such as Children in Need, for example, may teach a child to care for others and that charity is good. Proactive programs such as those mentioned above, can also teach young children how to act in social situations as they may imitate some of the behaviours that they watch on television. Some children’s cartoons show pro-social behaviours which may teach a child key social skills, for example, Postman Pat, teaches about sharing and being caring to one another in a community. Using Bandura’s theory of children imitating the behaviour of role models, if a child watches their role model demonstrating loving and caring behaviours, then this will be imitated and learnt, as opposed to violent behaviours. This therefore shows that watching television can also have positive repercussions for a child’s behaviour, although only if they are watching pro – social behaviours demonstrated by the television characters, as they may choose to imitate these characters and therefore the behaviour.
Some researchers have found that watching television between the ages of three to five years old has a positive correlation with reading scores (Zimmerman) [22]. Obviously, because this research is a correlation research, cause and effect cannot be established, as there may have been other extraneous variables affecting the results. For example, some people may believe that children who have more caring behaviours and cognitions have a natural predisposition to choose cartoons and programs more suited to their beliefs. Therefore programs with anti-social behaviours shown in them will not influence them, as they may not choose to watch them or they may not initiate their attention. Another factor that may have affected this study, and studies like this, is the amount of time the child has previously spent reading and the amount of time they spent reading compared to the amount of time they spend watching television. This research could be used to argue that the viewing of television for young children can have a positive effect and help them achieve a high level of academic success. However, there are many theories and studies that could be used to contradict this. For example, the previously mentioned study by Anderson et Al (2007) contradicts this theory arguing that watching television at an early age can have negative implications for academic success in girls, as they become less socialised for school. It could be argued that as there have been theories and research that links the early viewing of television programs with the attention disorder ADHD, it is better for a child to engage in other activities and learn reading skills through doing so, rather than watch television and risk any negative effects.
There has been much debate broadcast in the media about the negative effects of television on young children, but there has been a lot less attention paid to the benefits that viewing television may bring to young children, therefore there is not a lot of research available on the subject. This could reflect the lack of benefits that viewing television has for children, or could be a factor of the lack of public attention that this research gets.
How does watching television compare with other activities (i.e. reading)
Figure two shows how the average person in America spends 2.7 hours a day watching television and twenty five minutes using a computer for gaming/leisure, compared with only eighteen minutes reading a day. This shows how big a part of society television has become in modern day, whereas in 1920’s (just before and during the invention of the television in 1926) favourite past times included baseball and crossword puzzles. The largest portion of the pie chart is used by watching television in an average Americans leisure time, which backs up the argument stated before that if an individual in today’s culture (especially in the western or developed world) is sheltered from watching television, or chooses not to for whatever reason, they may find it hard to interact with others or have anything to talk about. It is noted in figure two that the statistics for this pie chart is taken from an average for people age fifteen and over, therefore it is hard to compare this to activities that children engage in other than television, but it could be used as a base line to generalise the results.
Figure two [23]:
Another way that engaging in alternative activities may benefit a child is that these other activities may enable the child to form a more stable relationship for the child. It has been noted in many psychology books how a stable relationship with a parent has many positive implications for the child’s future development, compared with children who do not have stable or secure relationships with their parents. For example, John Bowlby (1969) proposed that early attachments provide a template or ‘schema’ (a set view of how things work or how one should behave) that allow us to develop later attachments later in life. [24] He referred to this concept as the ‘internal working model’ and argued that: ‘‘early attachments are our first feel for what constitutes an emotional bond and we use this in later life as a basis for other attachments’’. Another key psychologist in this area of research is Mary Ainsworth, who proposed that there are three types of attachment: secure attachments, ambivalent – insecure attachments and avoidant – insecure attachments. [25] She argued that ambivalent – insecure attachments between parent and child may result from poor maternal ability and the children are not able to rely on their parents. She also argued that avoidant – insecure attachments between parent and child may result from abusive or neglectful parenting styles (such as not spending time with a child and sitting the child in front of the television on a constant basis, instead of engaging in activities and bonding with the child). There is a huge amount of research that backs up Ainsworth theory that failure to form early secure attachments with a parent or caregiver may have a negative impact on behaviour in later childhood and in later life. Although there is no direct studies into how television viewing may effect relationships with children, there is sufficient reason to state that part taking in alternative activities with children may have more implications to form a stronger relationship with the child.
Conclusion:
The American Academy of Paediatrics recommends that children under two should not watch any television, and that all children over two be limited to one to two hours of educational screen media a day. [26] This shows that while educational media may have its benefits, it is not the most productive way for a child to spend their time. It also reflects that other television viewing may be harmful to the child’s development as it is not recommended to do at all. As seen in the report above, there are a lot more implications for television having negative effects on the development of children, such as; assumed predispositions to repeat violent acts, suspected implications for the onset as behaviour disorders such as ADHD and other behaviour related negative behaviours. On the other hand the report shows that there may be positive implications for watching certain amounts of the ‘right’ television programs that show pro-social behaviours, such as teaching caring or loving behaviours to children and having positive effects on reading scores. However, when one ways up the pros and cons of allowing children to watch television, it seems appropriate to allow other activities such as reading aloud with the child or explaining and demonstrating personally how to engage in socially acceptable behaviours, to be a much more appropriate way of spending time with a child. This shall therefore decrease side effects that may be caused by allowing the child in question to watch television programs, and will also enable the child to spend quality time with the parent/guardian, which will therefore allow the child and parent to build a stronger relationship together. The American Academy of Paediatrics have been quoted as saying ‘’any positive effect of television on infants and toddlers is still open to question, but the benefits of parent-child interactions are proven. Under age two, talking, singing, reading, listening to music or playing is far more important to a child's development than any TV show." [27]
