Child Behavior - Expository Essay - James Huang

James Huang

Freshman Comp. Spring 2015

3/23/15

                                                Child Behavior - Expository Essay

            Children are less talkative nowadays, at least in a parent's perspective, they are.  They seem to be living in their own world parted away from ours. There are many reasons why children seem less and less communicative and productive throughout the years. One main factor that causes both these things and retrogresses the behavior of children is the television. The television negatively impacts the behavior of children through its programming and advertising.

            Television deteriorates children's working habits or behaviors. It takes productivity away from children. Every single day, as soon as the children come home from school, the television is turned on. Homework is disregarded. Chores are disregarded. Dinner is disregarded. Children would rather watch television than eat and take care of their own well being. Television uses up children's time made for productivity as well as their own free time. On weekends, children would rather stay home and watch Saturday morning TV shows and play video games instead of going outside, play sports, or doing anything productive. Television is able to distract children from their responsibilities with its programming and advertising. Author Eric Schlosser, in his essay, "Kid Kustomers", exposes how much time American children waste watching television instead of using that time efficiently. He states "The typical American child now spends about twenty-one hours a week watching the television - roughly one and a half months of TV every year. That does not include the time children spend in front of a screen watching videos, playing video games, or using the computer. Outside of school, the typical American child spends more time watching television than doing any other activity except sleeping."(Schlosser, 4). Schlosser explains the depravity of the situation. He reveals the absurd amount of time that children are being exposed to television at home.  Author, Marie Winn, supports Schlosser's thoughts on this grave case of children's priorities being the television, by stating, "The children are either watching television, gobbling their dinner, or both. While the parents eat their dinner in peaceful privacy, the children watch another hour of television. Then there is only a half-hour left before bedtime, and so on. The children's evening is regimented with an almost military precision. They watch their favorite programs, and when there is "nothing much on I really like," they watch whatever else is on - because watching is the important thing." (Winn, 468).  Not only do Schlosser and Winn say how television is deteriorating American children's working habits/behaviors and is taking away their productivity, but they also disclose the fact that television is affecting children's behavior at home through television programming and advertising.

            Television programming is currently negatively influencing the way children behave at home. Winn stresses this point in her work, "Television: The Plug-In Drug", and states, "Of course families today still do things together at times: go camping in the summer, go to the zoo on a nice Sunday, take various trips and expeditions. But their ordinary daily life together is diminished - those hours of sitting around at the dinner table, the spontaneous taking up of an activity, the little games invented by children on the spur of the moment when there is nothing else to do, the scribbling, the chatting, and even the quarreling, all the things that form the fabric of a family, that define a childhood. Instead, the children have their regular schedule of television programs and bedtime, and the parents have their peaceful dinner together." (Winn, 468). Winn describes how much has changed since the television became accessible to children. She illustrates how dry family intimacy has become ever since the television programming came to exist within the household. There is no more board games, family chats, and even family dinners. Winn explains how children would rather eat on the couch, in front of the television programming their favorite shows, instead of the dinner table with his or her family. They would rather watch television programs for entertainment instead of chatting or playing board games with the family. Because of television programming, children have lost their intimacy that they once had for and with their families. Winn also discusses the negative influences that television programming dispenses to children and their families and explains how children's behavior changes due to the television programming. Children suddenly lack communication between themselves and their peers and family members and they have a sudden craving for the television as soon as they get home from school. They feel as if it is a necessity to catch their shows on time, neglecting everything and everyone else around them. This behavioral change in children is ultimately preventing them from being able to be comfortable with others, hindering their growth as an individual, lowering their ability to interact with real-life people, and preventing them from making advisable priorities for themselves.

            Television programming is not the only reason why the behavior of children at home is altering negatively. It is true that television programming reduces the amount of communication children delivers to their parents, but it is also true that television advertising pushes children to talk with their parents. Many may argue that television can be something that family can talk about or even relate to each other about. It may sound like a good thing, but that is false. This form of communication is very delicate and momentary. What children really want to talk about with their parents isn't about the show that they've just watched, but it is about the advertisements that appeared on television which is why television advertising is just as bad as television programming, if not worse. According to Schlosser, in "Kid Kustomers", "During the course of a year, he or she watches more than thirty thousand TV commercials." (Schlosser, 4). and "Marketers now use different terms to explain the intended response to their ads -such as "leverage," "the nudge factor," "pester power." The aim of most children's advertising is straightforward: Get kids to nag their parents and nag them well." (Schlosser, 2). Schlosser explains that television advertisements are being watched almost just as much as television programs and are manipulating children to nag their parents to buy them what was shown on television. This nagging or bothering that was induced by television advertising does not bring a family together, instead, it severs the bonds of family even more because of children's negatively changing behavior. This then results in more negativity in their behavior that may be caused by a parent's neglect or disapproval after the whole nagging process.            

            Children's behavior is being manipulated by the television and its media/content. They are unable to control themselves to the point where they would rather watch television programming than sleep. Bonds are being broken and not only children, but families as well are suffering from the lack of communication and intimacy. Children are being shaped into beings that follow the television and not their own parents. They want what the television advertisements tells them to want. They do what the television programming tells them to do: to keep watching. Due to television, children neglect their studies, their families, and even themselves. Television is negatively influencing the children of America and that is a fact.