Date Posted: 2/14/2018 9:02:53 AM
Posted By: Faimus Membership Level: Gold Total Points: 1012
Parents can control the music, television shows and movies that their teenagers find interesting. However, to do this they need to spend enough time with their teenagers to know what their children consume from the media. This should be time their children are engaged in television shows , YouTube channels and browsing the internet. They also need to be aware of the influences of the media to their teenagers. A teenager who takes interest in action movies may find violence a normal to engage in while another who takes interest in the same movies may be motivated to take up a career in the army. It is therefore the responsibility of the parents to engage with their teenagers to know what kind of influences media has on them. With such information, the parents can control their teenager’s activities. Parents should use their parental authority to block channels and websites that they consider inappropriate for their teenagers. The parents should thereafter have a talk with their teenagers to explain to them why they consider the blocked sites inappropriate and the negative influences they can have them. Having a conversation with the teenagers prevents rebellion that may result from what the teenagers may view as curtailed freedom. Talking also enlightens them in several matters that they may have been oblivious to before. Explaining to them to reasons for such actions in detail also goes a long way in encouraging self-discipline in the teenagers and they, in turn, learn to avoid the blocked channels and websites on their own without supervision from their parents.Parents can limit the time their children spend on the media. Without parental supervision, teenagers tend to spend a substantial amount of their time on their computers, phones and televisions, reducing the time they spent on their academic work, outside with their mates or their relatives . In the end , this negatively impacts their social and academic lives. It is not rare to find teenagers with poor social and academic lives as a result of spending too much time on media. Parents should therefore set time limits everyday after which the teenagers cannot access media. In addition to setting the time limits, they also have the responsibility of making sure that those limits are adhered to. The parents can also take measures such as shutting down all electronic devices that the teenagers may use to access media or keeping the devices out of their teenagers' reach. Parents should also talk to their teenagers about the influences of media to their children. This because teenage is a very vulnerable age and teenagers can be easily be manipulated by ill willed people or pressured by their mates into visiting inappropriate websites or using media in a negative manner. Teenagers are also generally confused on various matters and the direct involvement of parents in their lives helps clear out the obscure details. Conversation makes teenagers find their parents approachable and easily consult them on matters arising from their day to day lives. Parents should not only focus on the negative effects but also the positive effects. By enumerating the positive effects, their teenagers can focus to reap the positive benefits of media. The parents should also highlight the negative effects of media so that their teenagers can fully understand what to avoid when using media. With the media being loaded with fake images, videos and all manner of items, parents should be in the front line at helping their teenagers differentiate between what is real and what is fake and between reality and fantasy. Fake images have a toll on teenagers as they try to achieve the perfect lives that they see on media or the movies that create worlds of fantasy that teenagers may believe to be true. Study shows that teenagers are some of the major victims of low self esteem as they perceive themselves or their lives as inferior to those posted in various social media platforms. Teenagers may also result to taking up living fake lives to impress their mates or friends on such as social media networks who have similar lives. Parents should therefore help their children to know what to pick up and ignore from media. They should guide them in their interactions with their friends in social networking sites so as to ensure that their children don’t feel inferior to the rest. Parents should also keep electronics devices such as computers and television out of the bedrooms of their teenagers. Parents should also limit the use of phones by their teenagers without parental supervision. Alone, teenagers can access inappropriate sites and even fall prey to social networks imposters. Keeping those electronic devices away also guarantees that the teenagers do not spend all their time on media either watching movies, music or chatting with friends. This also ensures that their parents can monitor what their children consume from the media.Several organizations organize forums that enlighten the youth on the positive and negative impacts of media on their lives. Parents should accompany their children to such forums or allow them to attend. These forums provide children with the necessary guidance on what sites to visit, movies to watch and music to listen to. These forums also engage people who have been victims of various negative media practices and those who have improved their lives via media . From these people, teenagers have a firsthand information on the effects of media and hence they can use media responsibly.
Next: Rhizosphere and its characteristicsPrevious: The objectives of primary school education and examples to show how they have been achieved
Get premium membership