To What Extent Do the Mass Media Influence the Behaviour of Young People?

To what extent do the mass media influence the behavior of young people?

Mass media refers to those media that are designed to be consumed by large audiences through the agencies of technology. These technologies include the Internet, television, newspapers, film and radio, which are used for mass communications. Mass media also include the organizations which control these technologies. Young people are nowadays easily influenced by their environment. Whether it is television, friends, family members, or just plain strangers, everyone and everything has an impact on teenagers.

Television viewing is a major activity and thus influences children and adolescents. While television can entertain, inform, and keep our children company, it may also influence them in undesirable ways. . Studies have shown that television, and media in general, can also have a very negative influence. Some studies indicate it can shorten attention span, create fear, and increase aggressive and anti-social behaviour if exposure is unmonitored and unlimited. Time spent watching television takes away from important activities such as reading, school work, playing, exercise, family interaction, and social development. Children also learn information from television that may be inappropriate or incorrect. They are influenced by the thousands of commercials seen each year, many of which are for alcohol, junk food, fast foods, and toys. Those who watch too much of television tends to have lower grades in school, read fewer books , exercise less and thus Be overweight..
However Television can be a powerful entertainment and education tool for children given the right programming. with healthy viewing habits and parental supervision television can prove to be a very good tool, especially in the field of education. In fact, TV can help kids learn about a variety of subjects, explore and discover places, animals, or things that they couldn’t see otherwise and learn more about what is going on around the world. Besides, students must learn to have the right balance between work and play.

Nowadays, the Internet is very popular with young people. Most of them spend a lot of time in surfing on the Net. There is no doubt that the Internet has good influences in increasing young people’s knowledge. It keeps everyone informed. Within few minutes, we have access to the latest news. Moreover, more and more youth use the Internet to search for information for their work or their study. They also can learn much about cultures, history, geography… through abundance sources of information found on the Internet.
On the other hand, there are negative influences of the Internet on young people. Firstly, too much of the computer can have bad physical effects. Sitting front of the screen for a long time without rest can cause harm to the eyes. headache and back pain are also common. Direct communication is very poor. Young people usually communicate with others throughout websites like Messenger and Facebook. Many youngsters prefer to chat on the internet instead of going out with family or meeting friends. Therefore, young people can have difficulty in real communicating and in their relationships. Their attitude towards other changes and this can trigger an anti-social behavior.
Young people are in a stage of life where they want to be accepted by their peers, they want to be loved and be successful. The media creates the ideal image of a beautiful men and women. These people are usually shown as slim, fit, healthy, rich and successful persons especially in movies. Young people are easily influenced by these actors and want to become like them. They start wearing the same type of clothes and try to imitate them. However, each and every one is unique and is born with some hidden talents. Also women and girls are becoming obsessive with losing weight even when they are not obese. They want to look like the super models and slim celebrities. In order to achieve this they engage in diets and exercise. However eating disorders may lead to severe health issues and even death.

In the last 50 years the media influence has increased with the advance of technology. First there was the radio,then the newspaper, magazines, television and now the internet. We live in a society that depends on information and communication to keep moving in the right direction and do our daily activities like work, entertainment and education. However young people are easily influenced and parents have to see to it that their children are watching and reading the right stuff.