Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/changing-needs-changing-responses-rethinking-how-we-teach-children/5012846/
Today's children are growing up in a media-saturated environment. They average 35 hours per week of "screen time," during which they watch television or videos, play with computer and video games, use the Internet. Before entering kindergarten, the average child will have watched over 4,000 hours of television alone - more time than doing anything but sleeping (Walsh, 1994).Much of what children see on the screen can undermine healthy development (Levin & Carlsson-Paige, 1994). It is permeated with content which affects their develop-ing ideas and behavior - about violence, gender roles, sex, and more. For instance, by the end of elementary school, the average child will have witnessed over 8,000 murders and 100,000 other acts of violence on the screen, much of which is glamorized, for-fun violence. "Screen time" takes valuable time away from the concrete experiences from which young children learn best. It can also promote passivity and a need to be entertained by others.
But to understand fully the role of media culture, we need to look at the licensing of thousands of media-linked products that permeate most aspects of children's lives - including the kinds of toys they want to play with and the content and nature of their ...