The children today are so tech savvy that 5 year old kids are also given tabs, mobiles and play stations. They spend most of their time being glued to the television sets or playing games virtually. Long gone are the days when physical activities were given importance. The coming of television has reduced the outdoor activities of children. Moreover, the concentration, creativity, understanding and social interactions of a child are reduced due to increased TV watching.
The young mind is an impressionable one, anything and everything they see has an impact on how they behave and think. The past few decades has seen the rise of both violence and the growing role of media in one’s life. The portrayal of violent acts through news, cartoons, serials have become very common which affects the psychology of adolescents and teenagers. There is a high correlation between violence on TV and the acts of violence carried out by children. Watching aggression on TV is linked to greater aggressiveness in viewers. There have been various studies carried out on children as they are more vulnerable to the impact of television than adults. It has been found that children tend to imitate what they see what thinking of the consequences. The heroes they see on TV become their role models and they try to ‘beat the bad guys’ or ‘take revenge’.
“I actually had to make my small brother stop watching Shin chan as he became really rude and answered back to us, all the time” says Yeshashwini, who has a younger sibling of 6 years.
“Though Chota Bheem and all are good cartoons, my son got into the habit of punching everyone after watching it. I had t make sure that he doesn’t watch this cartoon anymore.” – says Bhawna, a mother of a 5 years.
Psychologists believe that children in elementary school who watched violence on TV tend to grow up as aggressive teenagers. Not only this, continuous exposure to violence might desensitize the child where he or she becomes immune to the violence in real life and might find it enjoyable to some extent.
It is important that teachers and parents understand the role media has on the psychology of children and they work to reduce this impact. Parents should limit the exposure to TV violence and monitor the shows that children watch. Teachers should have healthy discussions in school where they discuss such things and make the child more aware of his or her actions and their consequences.
