Video games are now very popular for young teenagers, both male and female. Those teenagers are addicted to the video games so much that most of them do not focus on their future. As a result, they face many problems, such as health, poor performance, and personality. Therefore, there is no doubt that teenagers should avoid playing video games.
The first problem when teenagers spend too much time on video games is that they are prone to get health risk, especially on their eyes and brains. It is simple to say that playing video games is staying in front of the screen of smartphones or computers. Thus, the brightness of the screen will affect their eyes if they stay in front of those screens for a long time. Also, they will have the problems of thinking and memorizing because their brains do not have enough time to relax. Playing video games will affect their life form being poor performance. When teenagers are addicted to the video games, they seldom focus on important tasks from their schools or spend time on the real world. They feel lazy to do all the things that will make their lives better. Therefore, their performances at school and communication skills will not be good enough to make them success in their lives.
Another problem is that video games can change the teenagers’ personality. Some teenagers who like to play games that are included violent activities are likely to imagine that those activities can be practiced in real life, and they may practice by themselves. Video games can turn a teenager from a normal person to an aggressive person. Because they lack the ability of thinking, they can commit crime one day, causing chaos in their society.
Some people said that video games can increase the players’ intelligence because there are a lot of strategies included in the games, and players need to know those strategies to win the games. However, those strategies are games’ strategies, and they can be applied for only in the games but not in the real world. Thus, how can we say playing games increase human intelligence? It is just a waste of time. To become intelligent, one must study and know how to solve problems in real world, not in video games.
In conclusion, playing video games is a waste of time if one spends too much time on it, and it causes many problems, including health, performance, and personality. Life does not depend on video games which are just useless things. Teenagers must not spend most of their time on it. They should think carefully about their future and their society rather than thinking of unimportant things.
“With around one in four teenagers developing significant mental health problems, however, parents need to know what’s normal and when to worry-it’s part of the job” (Media Release). Teenagers deal with a lot of troubles that, for the most part, others do not see or even have knowledge what they are going through or what the issue is. Some teenagers go weeks or months without speaking or acknowledging anyone, but nobody notices until the teenagers tells someone. Most people believe that the teenager is just having a bad day, but is it really just a bad day when it is like that for weeks or months? There are so many ways that life effects a teenager’s mental health but I only choose three. School can affect a teenager’s health; parents can do the same also work. Work and school are two of the three that are most important.
High school has a huge effect on students and their mental health, the reasoning behind it could be the school not offering the correct help the students may very well need, the students refusing to seek professional help, or the student is feeling uncomfortable with seeking help from the proper people. Students who do not seek the correct amount of help or get the correct help in order to get better could/will lead to adulthood with more trouble. Not having the appropriate therapy could possibly cause more harm than good and that would be a serious problem. “Only one in 10 health authorities have policies in place for young people’s health and less than half (40%) have guidelines dealing with teenager’s mental health problems” (Health Service). Mental health is a subject that most people or students are not okay with talking about, most people are ignoring the fact that they have mental issues.
Teenagers deal with a huge amount of emotions and personal things that not everyone knows about. “We had no idea how depressed she was” (Dear Wendy). Parents don’t pay attention to their teens and the in a counter-reaction of their oblivious knowledge the teen sometimes reacts badly. Typically, teens will retaliate by doing everything their parents would rather them not do all for attention. Teenagers have emotions and deal with more than their parents did. Nowadays, unlike most teens, parents didn’t have jobs, school, college, all at the same time. At such an age it stresses the teens out way more than it did when the parents were the same age. Parents also compare how different their childhoods were and that makes their children feel worse about themselves because the parents put the children down. They don’t understand that their childhood is way different from ours.
“Less than one in five (18%) have adolescent mental health units to help teenagers cope with illnesses such as depression or eating disorders, the poll or more than 100 health authorities found” (Health Services). If parents can’t notice if or when their children are severely depressed, how do they expect the school systems to realize that the teenager is depressed? Schools puts a huge amount of stress on the students because school has lost its meaning. School is for learning but now with everyone putting emphasis on grades and how you need good grades in order to get into a good college. Far too many students are worried about getting good grades to get into a good college than actually learning the subject. The students think more about the grade on that math test that they took last week then about actually knowing and understanding the material.
The social pressure put on students as well at school has made the students think that everyone has to like them. They think that being liked by everyone else is more important than school or the work for school because they don’t want to be the odd ball out. Peer pressure is one of the major influences in school. Some teenagers to de-stress themselves have started hustling, by doing these kids have been revealed themselves to a whole new world of drugs, alcohol, and sex. The sad reality of teenagers is that they are more gullible than everyone else. They are more easily persuaded and easily tricked into doing a lot more than it would’ve been back when our parents were in high school.
The teen-age years are the years that you will always remember. At this time, teens learn a lot of things, experience a lot of things and round themselves as adults. Teenagers use these years to experience life or basically experience everything that their parents do not want their teenagers doing yet such as drinking and partying. Most teens do everything their parents do not want them to do because it is exciting, to have the chance to do something in spite of your parents and that is very interesting to most teens. Parents obviously do not like the fact that their children are not doing everything that they say. Now the parents are stressed thinking that their teenagers are going to go down the wrong path, but the teenagers know that they are just trying to experience life before they grow up, become mature and be an adult. Whenever a teenager doesn’t experience some life while they are teenagers then that means that are more than likely going to experience it as adults. As a teenager, there is more freedom to try new things that are normally not good to do when a certain age has been reached. Doing something as a sixteen-year-old would typically be more acceptable than doing it as thirty-five-year-old adult. At sixteen you are still trying to experience life and you will more than likely just get a slap on the wrist but trying it as an adult then you know right from wrong and will probably not just get a slap on the wrist, you could end up in jail.
Experiencing things as an adult that could’ve been experience as a teen normally results in a bad habit that might turn into an addiction. “Many teens also report feeling overwhelmed (31%) and depressed or sad (30%) as a result of stress. More than one-third of teens report fatigue or feeling tired (36%) and nearly one-quarter of teens (23%) report skipping a meal due to stress” (American Psychological). Assuming that the teenagers who are stressed end up with a bad crowd, they cave into peer pressure, and assuming that they get some type of addiction either from the way they live their lives or an addiction from some kind of substance such as alcohol, or marijuana, or any hard-core drug.
Stress in teenagers can compete with their health and mental well-being. “The results of a study that tried to determine the association between overweight and obesity, demographic variables, elevated blood pressure, and frequency of health care referrals in rural adolescents” (Rollins Judy). Being under this great amount of stress at a young age could possibly compromise the enjoyment of being a teenager. To keep stress levels down it would help by having someone the teenager could rely on so they can discuss what is going on such as a friend, teacher or another adult. Teenagers, most of the time, need that outlet because it shortens their life span being stressed all the time. “Individuals living with serious mental illnesses die 25 years, on average, earlier than others” (Johnson). From knowing this, is it important that people are informed about mental health and how it is important that the teenagers get the help that they need because not everyone can deal with their problems all on their own.
Having someone that you can count on to not judge you or tell you that you’re dumb for thinking like that is an essential part for teens to have a de-stressing moment. When there is someone that you could resort to about your personal problems makes life a little bit easier to live. “It is alarming that the teen stress experience is so similar to that of adults. It is even more concerning that they seem to underestimate the potential impact that stress has on their physical and mental health” (American Psychological). One study from the American Psychological had shown that fifty-four percent of teens vs thirty-nine percent of adults have a physical effect from stress and fifty-two percent of teens vs forty-three percent of adults have a mental effect from stress. This possibly/ will cause harm to teens and adults.
There are plenty of ways to de-stress, you could meditate, it calms you and makes you think deeper with stressing so much. Working out could also be an amazing way to de-stress because you release neurotoxins that are good for your health. There are multiple ways to de-stress like preparing for the next day the night before, it is proven nothing is more stressful than being unprepared, says Mona Lisa Schulz, MD, PhD, author of ‘The New Feminine Brain’ (Free Press,2005). Going swimming will also allow the body to relax. “A new Swedish study published in the International Journal of Stress Management found that floating in water triggers the body’s relaxation response, helping lower stress-hormone levels. Even better, nearly 80 percent of the subjects showed improvements such as feeling less tense and depressed” (O’Connor). You could start playing tennis. “Tennis is a great way to blow off steam, because it’s an aerobic activity that manages the stress hormones while boosting feel-good endorphins” (Wall St. Cheat Sheet). Tennis can even help you manage your stress levels. A lot of sport and activities such as tennis are actually really good for not just your physical health but also your mental health. Boxing is also another good way to help relieve your stress. Beating up a bag and taking out your anger on it temporarily relieves your stress and leaves you feeling a whole lot better.
So, in conclusion to everything teenagers get stressed out a lot and because of life and life’s experience but there is always a healthy way of dealing with this stress instead of locking yourself in your room and being depressed. Go and talk to someone about it or even go play a game of tennis or do yoga. Maybe even go boxing. They are so many ways to deal with your stress. You shouldn’t have to bottled everything up and deal with it yourself. There are people there for you always. You just have to go and talk to them. They may or not understand what you are going through. If they don’t understand what you are going through then help them understand. Just ask for help. Do not go through everything on your own.
With the significant development of technology within a few decades. A great number of teenagers are drawing attention to the Internet gaming. According to the latest survey results of China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), by the end of December 2018, the number of Chinese Internet users had reached 829 million, making China the largest Internet user in the world. The majority of China’s Internet users are still young people aged 30 and under, who account for 68.6 percent of China’s Internet users, more than two-thirds of the total. The scale of online game users in China continues to show a trend of rapid development. In June 2018, the usage rate of Internet users was 58.3%, and the user scale reached 147 million. In the same period, the usage rate of online games in the United States was 35%, far lower than that in China. Because the scale of online game users in China is so large, it has become a concern of the government and the industry. This essay will argue whether online gaming is beneficial for teenagers.
The issue of online gaming must be looked at dialectically, the network has advantages and disadvantages. As a combination of culture, art and high-tech, online games are of great economic and cultural value and play an important role in inheriting and prospering national culture. According to the statics report by CNNIC, in recent years, online games have become a cultural form widely participated in and paid attention to by teenagers, which has a great influence on Chinese society. Therefore, Chinese scholars should put online games in an important position to analyze and study, to guide all sectors of society to recognize and face it with a correct attitude. There is a wide range of online games, which can be divided into 7 categories according to the content: role-playing, strategy, action, simulation, sports, desktop, and racing. All kinds of games have their characteristics, among which a considerable number of games are helpful to the growth of teenagers.
Firstly, playing online games can develop the brain. improve the intelligence of some puzzle games, can be through the players hand brain cooperation, make the brain through high-speed operation, improve and exercise the brain response flexibility, long-time exercise can play a role in developing the brain, improve the intelligence according to research by Kai Yuan, the leading researcher of ‘Cortical Thickness Abnormalities in Late Adolescence with Online Gaming Addiction’.
Secondly, PhD Peter Gray mentioned that playing online games can cultivate a certain degree of enthusiasm, improve the consciousness of innovation online games. If teenagers play seriously, certain achievements will be gained in the game world, the game model can cultivate players in life a certain degree of enthusiasm. Besides, some businesses have developed games that can combine study with entertainment to stimulate the interest and enthusiasm of teenagers in learning. Some online games let players in the process of playing, can recognize their strengths and advantages, in the virtual world than in real life is easier to break through the routine, the courage to try, to gradually stimulate the individual consciousness of innovation, improve themselves.
Thirdly, reporter Bartholomew mentioned in a report from ABC News that teenagers are bound to face various pressures in work and study. Games are also a way of entertainment, in which players can divert their attention, relax their mood and relieve pressure. Some role-playing games allow players to show their skills in the game, reduce pressure and make them believe in their ability, cultivate their sense of accomplishment and enhance their confidence.
Moreover, playing online games can strengthen the spirit of teamwork almost all online games are endurance and time, success in the game, but also to pay a lot of effort, more twists and turns in the process, players can usually hone their endurance and will in the game. Many games need cooperation between members. In the game, players must cooperate properly to achieve success. In this way, the teamwork spirit of game users is subtly enhanced.
However, online gaming can be a double-edged sword. Phippen mentioned in his report ‘Children’s online Behavior and Safety: Policy and Rights Challenges’, online gaming can lead to addiction of adolescents. Different from the real social life, online gaming is a virtual world, which not only meets the needs of teenagers, to occupy all kinds of information as soon as possible, but also leaves a broad imagination space for interpersonal communication, and does not have to bear the pressure and responsibility in real life. These characteristics of the virtual world make many teenagers would rather indulge in the virtual environment than face real life. Addiction to online games has brought many negative effects on the physical and mental health of teenagers. Medical experts from WHO (World Health Organization) argue that, from the perspective of physiology, teenagers addicted to the network will cause bad influence on the health of the body mainly shown on adolescents’ eyesight, mental health, language competence, and nervous system, serious, even directly cause death.
In all, this essay address both the positive and negative impacts of Internet gaming. Game is the ninth-largest art form, is the combination of the first eight art forms, is the golden product of entertainment in this electronic world, excellent game works contain all aspects of the top art. The artistry of the game and the greatness of its existence can’t be denied. Games for most adolescents e are just a form of entertainment. Just like watching a movie, watching a movie with rich content can gain a great amount of information. On the other hand, the mind can be corrupted by watching some bad movies. The same is true of games. Good games can relax adolescent’s mood, enrich imagination and so on. On the other hand, there are some games full of pornography and violence, which do no good. Therefore, the negative impact of online gaming can be outweighed by the positive impact on the younger generation.
References
Bartholomew, (2017). Online Gaming More than ‘Frivolous’ Entertainment, Says Academic. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-24/gaming-development-conference/8301676
CNNIC, (2018). A Statistical Report on the Development of China’s Internet. https://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2019-02-28/doc-ihrfqzka9929357.shtml
Gray, (2018). Benefits of Play Revealed in Research on Video Gaming. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/freedom-learn/201803/benefits-play-revealed-in-research-video-gaming
Phippen, A. (2017). Children’s Online Behaviour and Safety: Policy and Rights Challenges. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://primoa.library.unsw.edu.au/primo-explore/fulldisplay?vid=UNSWS&docid=UNSW_ALMA51228478810001731&query=any,contains,Children%E2%80%99s%20online%20Behavior%20and%20Safety:%20Policy%20and%20Rights%20Challenges&_ga=2.262457487.208262698.1571741456-621547683.1565012494
Rivenes, (2017). The History of Online Gaming. https://datapath.io/resources/blog/the-history-of-online-gaming/
World Health Organization (WHO), (2018). Online Q&A. https://www.who.int/features/qa/gaming-disorder/en/
Kai Yuan, Ping Cheng, Tao Dong, Yanzhi Bi, Lihong Xing, Dahua Yu, … Jie Tian. (2013). Cortical Thickness Abnormalities in Late Adolescence with Online Gaming Addiction. PLoS ONE, 8(1), e53055. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0053055
Teens should be allowed to have much more freedom. Teenagers want to stay out and enjoy themselves with friends. Curfews for teens should be eliminated because teens need more freedom, it is a way to gain trust with parents, and teens can get in trouble at any time.
People know for a fact that curfews do not actually do the job they are supposed to which is to keep teenagers out of trouble. “Nationwide more than 80 percent of juvenile offenses take place between 9 o’clock in the morning and 10 o’clock at night, outside most curfews” (Reed). Curfews really don’t work, more and more people are starting to realize if they can or can’t actually keep their child in sight and out of trouble, or does a curfew really need to be added into that a teen’s life. Many parents think back to when they were teenagers and what they were like. Did those parents have a curfew? If they did, would they follow the rules or were they rule breakers? Teenagers were probably more likely to follow the rules now than they were way back then.
Curfews are laws that impose that a certain person needs to be inside at a specific time, usually later during the night. Curfews mostly apply to teens to try and keep them safe and stay out of trouble. Different places around the world will have different rules on what time that person has to be indoors. Examples of different times could be 11 p.m. in one city and 12 p.m. in another. Most teens do not tell their parents where they are going when they get a car. “Also, teens like to party like there is no tomorrow, and most of them lead to hardcore drug and alcohol abuse in their near and distant future, so curfews really do not keep teens out of trouble, no matter what parents may think” (Fry).
It’s very true that curfews have reduced crime, but a lot of people think that it is restrictive against teenagers. Also, people don’t know what the main cause of teen crime is. Teens are close to growing up and being on their own. They should be able to have just as much freedom as adults. If there were more legitimate nighttime activities for teenagers, it would make a huge change in the curfew system. At least having no curfew on weekends could be a major help to teens’ freedom.
“The number of youth under 18 arrested has been steady for the past 10 years” (Fry). This shows that curfews are not making a change in teens’ crime rate. Even though curfews really don’t make a change. Teens need to look at the situation they’re in from a parent’s perspective. No adult or parent wants to see their teen coming home at 3 in the morning. Every parent can probably relate to their teens wanting to stay out later with friends because they’re having fun and a good time.
Teenagers don’t want to be stuck at home all day, bored, and have nothing to do. They want to have fun and enjoy their childhood and high school years. Many teens sneak out of their homes to go out and have fun. This leads to many teenagers getting in trouble and making them look like they are bad teens. When in reality they should have the choice of whether or not they want to leave the house.
“Curfews have nothing to do with keeping kids out of trouble. If your kid is gonna do something stupid, they’ll do something stupid. End of discussion. If they want to do hood rat crap with their friends, they will. It could be 3 a.m. or 3 p.m.; if they want to, they will” (Branstetter). When they do get caught, it’s usually not by the police, but by the parents, which leads the parents to become very disappointed and mad at the teen. From there, the teen is probably grounded, and that can trigger them even more, which could lead the teen to run away from home. Once they sneak out and get caught being out past curfew the teen’s parents will probably lose faith in the teen and not look at them as young adults anymore, which is basically what a teen is. Most teenagers find a way to stay out past curfew and attempt to act like they weren’t. Most parents will think that the teen is doing something very suspicious like drugs or alcohol, which in reality they probably aren’t. Usually, the teen is just trying to find more time to spend with friends, or needs to get something accomplished, but it’s past curfew, so there not allowed to.
If curfews ever do change to a later time, teens would really appreciate the freedom that adults are giving them, and won’t have to sneak out after curfew and get in lots of trouble. This should also reduce the number of crimes that teenagers are committing after curfew. Even making more nighttime activities could change a lot. That would not only give teenagers freedom, but it gives them a purpose to be out late. Creating places around the world that would allow teens to hang out and spend time together would make a huge difference. Not as many teens would be getting in trouble if they were at an event meant for teens and not at something they shouldn’t be at after curfew.
Curfews have been around for a long time. This means that curfews have been implemented in teenagers’ live for a while now. Many teens are suffering socially from this horrible law. Curfews shouldn’t have even been invented nor should they be a law. Most teenagers would agree that they should be home at some point during the day, but curfews just aren’t the way to go. Curfews are taking away teens’ freedom and could be socially making teens awkward. Curfews can come from two things: your parent or guardian, and the city that you live in. When a parent makes a curfew for their teen, it usually is before the city curfew, which could be around 2 hours of a difference in time, but that 2 hours could impact that teenager’s life tremendously whether its learning new things in that amount of time or just being social and meeting new people.
If you were a parent, would you want to hear that your teenager parties all night and stays up past curfew? Parents need to gain more trust with their teens and help them learn from their mistakes because once that happens they keep learning and learning the difference between right and wrong, so once they gain the trust fully the parent should realize that curfews just aren’t helping in any way. As a parent, people should realize that a curfew should be the guardians’ curfew, not the city’s. Whose responsibility is the teen the parents obviously, so the city needs to just stay out of the issue. If a parent wants to make their curfew, they’re more than welcome to, because technically the teen is still under the responsibility of the parent and has to follow what they want, so there’s no stopping the parents. If you are a parent your teen would probably suggest you not make a curfew, and if you don’t make it like 9 o’clock, that’s just cruel to the teen and you’re ruining their social life.
A curfew is not going to keep teens out of trouble. Having a strong and crisp relationship with the parent is what’s going to keep them safe and not do something they’re not supposed to be doing. Why do people think that curfews can actually make a difference in society? Don’t those people, especially the older ones, remember what it was like to be a teen and not have as much or any freedom at all because of curfews? Let’s be honest, if a teen wants to do something dumb, they’re going do something dumb. Whether it’s 2 in the morning or 2 at night, a teen is going to do something parents won’t. Usually, teenagers with really strict parents are the ones that turn out to be little liars, they try to get away with anything they can because of how strict and crazy their parents are. For most teenagers, the thing that makes them happiest is being around their closest friends. There’s no better feeling than being around your friends on a Saturday night and having a great time. There’s not a worse feeling than being out on a Saturday night, having a great time with your friends, and then your parents call you saying it’s too late to be out and you need to be home now.
Curfews aren’t letting teens get the chance to explore their inner selves and mind. This keeps them from making their own decisions and is making most of them self-centered because of the amount of time there at home and not out being social. It should totally be the parent’s decision whether they want their teen out past curfew. The law should not be incorporated into teenagers’ lives. Who raised the teen? Who knows the teen the best? Obviously, the parents. The teen and the parents have a connection, unlike the law does with the teen. This is why teen needs to grow in trust with their parents and listen to them, not take orders from the law.
“A study by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice concluded that crime fell faster in California cities without curfews than in California cities with curfews” (Murphy). This shows that curfews really don’t do much, and even without them, crime is reduced. This is why parents should have control over when the teen is home or inside. Curfews mainly target teens which are really wrong because adults still make the same mistakes teens can at an older age. When curfews were made law, people should have thought about everybody, not just the teens.
“The widespread perception that juvenile crime takes place at night turns out to be wrong. Federal crime statistics show that people between the ages of 12 and 17 are more likely to commit crimes or become victims of crime between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., the hours when they are least likely to be supervised in school or by their parents” (Murphy). No matter your age, you should be protected. What’s the point of a curfew when your only protecting the younger and not the older, it doesn’t matter because curfews have been proven to not really do the job of reducing crime and keeping teens safe. If curfews aren’t doing anything then why aren’t they illegal by now? The fact that many people know that curfews are just pointless and that teens won’t listen to that law, but most will listen to their parents is just absurd. Being a teen is not easy especially when you get to high school. Teens are under a lot of stress between school and sports. It’s hard to find time to relax and be with friends. With all that stress on teens, they really want to just have some time by themselves or with friends. Curfews are not helping that problem, because they’re not allowing teens to have that freedom when they have the time. Especially on the weekend when the curfew is like 11 p.m. and you had a stressful week with school and sports and you just want to go and hang with your friends to try to relieve that stress. It could be difficult when curfews are holding you back from going out and enjoying yourself after a week of hard work and stress. As an adult, this is very important when you have a job and a family to take care of and protect. Parents probably want some peaceful time by themselves away from the stress, just like teens want in their lives. Once again, curfews have to get in the way of that peaceful time.
“That’s what happened in Detroit after it adopted a youth curfew in 1976. Juvenile crime dropped 6 percent during the curfew hours, but it increased 13 percent in the midafternoon” (Zimmerman). People get the point of keeping teenagers safe and taking away that risk of getting in trouble, but why even have a curfew if teens aren’t following that rule? There’s no point for a cop to arrest a teen because curfew is 12 p.m. and it’s 12:30 p.m., that’s just uncalled for and stupid! The police need to let the guardian or parent of the teen let the decisions be made and what the consequences are for the teen not listening to the parents. There shouldn’t be a curfew, what needs to happen is if the teen is doing something bad, they should get in trouble for doing whatever was illegal not for being out past curfew. Now if it’s late and the teen is outside being harmless then why is there a reason to arrest the teen when he’s just minding their own business? Technically curfews punish non-criminal behavior, which is unacceptable.
Curfews are taking away teens’ rights. Not only their freedom but their ability to speak and show that curfews aren’t helping the world in any way. Curfews are so inconvenient and the government needs to understand that and make a change. There should have been a change in the curfew law a while ago. Once people started to figure out that curfews were not helping reduce crime or keep teens safe, they should have tried and banned curfews when they first made the law. Now that curfews have been around since our parents have been alive, it seems like it’s just a traditional law that’s been around for a while and everybody has to follow, which is so uncalled for.
Curfews have put an impact on many teenagers’ lives. These impacts have made teens’ lives much more difficult and stressful. Let’s hope that the teens can use their voices and stand up for themselves so they can try to change this law.
Teenagers of the 21st century live a life on a fast lane that nobody in generations before them has ever experienced. The rapid development of technology as it affects their lives have caused them to become more irresponsible and daring in their daily lives. Having grown up in a world heavily influenced by virtual reality video games, they seem to see driving as nothing but a real-life game set in flesh and blood. Since a teenager is not yet an adult but no longer a child, his brain development cannot be fully considered to be reliable just as yet. They have yet to understand that there is no reset button once a driving mistake is made in real life.
Teenagers tend to emulate the bad driving habits that they see around them, which is seemingly approved in real life through the way movies portray dangerous driving activities like drifting, drag racing, street racing. In reality, driving takes professional skill and countless hours of responsible driving before one can actually develop proper driving habits and skills that can save a life when something goes wrong. The eventual result of these drivings habits is death or decapitation of a body part.
According to a survey undertaken by AAA and Seventeen magazine, which was published by USA Today in July of 2007, approximately 20% of drivers aged 16-17 ended up in fatal accidents from July – August. Seventeen magazine editor Anne Shoket explains this result as the effects of summer vacation:
School is out, and teens aren’t just driving from school to home to work… There are road trips, parties, more social activities. Their parents might loosen upon where and when they can drive for the summer because they just want to get the teens out of their hair for some time.
Consider the following dangerous activities a teenager has while driving. The same article indicated that 58 % drive with more than the car passenger capacity inside, 50 – 51 % text message or make calls while driving, and 11 % get behind the wheel either drunk or after having heavily used drugs.
The results of such actions on the part of the parents are usually devastating for both the parent and the child. Aside from the ruined vehicle, the parents are usually saddled with higher insurance premiums as a result of these accidental collisions. In the event of injury or death, the mental and emotional anguish that parents must deal with at the loss of a child’s physical abilities or, even worse, the loss of the child’s life cannot be accurately measured.
Parents have the ability to prevent such events. They have to acknowledge that they are the childhood role model for the kids and this includes being the indirect driving teacher of the child. It’s a case of “monkey see monkey do,” actually. Therefore, parents must seriously discuss the results of irresponsible driving with the teen, come up with a set of driving rules that must be followed at all times, and if necessary, sign a parent-teen driver agreement contract before allowing the use of the car. Whenever necessary, cancel car use privileges. Being the responsible person in the situation, it is up to the parent to preempt any possible dangerous activities their children may try to do behind the wheel.
In consumer technology, there is a notion that future operations (business or social) depend on what the youth are doing currently. The growth of technology has negatively affected the use of email. Each year, the number of email users decreases significantly. Nevertheless, email is not dead as many people still send and receive messages through it. For example, in opening a Facebook account, one must have an email address.
However, with the emancipation of the internet and the development of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Gamma the number of youth who use email as a mode of communication has reduced. This is because many teenagers consider it old fashioned and instead prefer to send instant messages via social networks. The future of email looks obsolete, as most statistics reveal that over 50 percent of Web-using teenagers enjoy an online chat or instant messaging to friends. Research done by ComScore in 2009 shows that the number of youth reportedly using Yahoo and Gmail was reduced by 8 percent.
On the other hand, the number of teenagers using social networking sites increased by 6 percent. Twitter and Facebook are the main beneficiaries, and of now, they are the most popular instant messaging sites rendering email dormant. If the trend continues, ten years from now, an email will be dead for teenagers (Olsen, 2007, p.1).
Reference List
Olsen, S. (2007). Kids say e-mail is, like, soooo dead. CNET News.com. Web.
Media has played a central part in the liberalization of communication across the global village. Through the media, exchange of information has not only become easier, but also efficient. By a click of a button, an interested party may be in a position to pass important information to as many recipients as possible.
As the world steadily embraces the use of internet, teenagers are not left behind. These teenagers communicate and use internet to interact with peers. Often, internet use among teenagers is addictive and robs them of the physical interaction and association with family members as they dedicate excessive time blogging with those they perceive as equals and members of the teenage culture.
Thus, this reflective treatise attempts to openly analyze the connection between teenagers’ internet use and their interaction with the society. Besides, the paper attempts to establish an existing association between internet as a tool of communication and loss of desire for face-to-face communication society. In addition, the paper looks into the high risk of social networks.
Reflectively, to enable a clear understanding of the above concept, the source of media reference in this paper dwells on the internet use among teenagers which has surpassed other means of communication.
Scholars in the field of communication media are still fully glued to the well distributed channel of communication known as internet to predict and explain the underlying factors that enabled certain cultural influences to be more popular than others and how these cultural influences were integrated into the society as part of society alongside the pre set norms and regulations. Moreover, still up to date, internet remains to be the most popular central element of information transference landscape (Burton 31).
In the last decade, many scholars and media consultants have come up with the open idiom ‘internet communication ‘to represent the substantially declining use of face-to-face model of communication assumed to be traditional among teenagers. With the modern technology, consumer of information has comprehensively redirected their interests on the content, reliability, comfort and privacy rather than just means of conveying information.
The target audience and their response are explored after which a conclusion is made depending on the derived results. In addition market position is steadily undergoing transformation posing a threat to the usual face to face communication (Ott & Mack 34).
Due to the entry of technological advancement in the world today, internet has been the most common means of social media communication among teenagers. In fact, more than 89% of American families’ teenagers have access to the internet and are literate in its use, whether positive or negative (Shaffer 49).
It’s been statistically established that teenagers spend more time in the internet watching news, commercial advertisements, blogging, and getting entertained than any activity, averagely taking a quarter of teenager’s daily time. Internet communication has become affordable and very efficient in teenager group interaction. The positive effects are vital for the teenager’s growth and development as the teenager is basically at the developmental process in life (Ott & Mack 24).
Exposure is the main positive effect since the teenager is in a position to express him or herself with confidence and freely speak his or her mind without the fear of drawing controversy or jeopardizing family relationship. Through the internet, teenagers get exposed to the current issues that happen regionally and the world at large without having to engage in continuous face-to-face communication with people around them.
Despite technological breakthrough in internet media communication, face-to-face communication remains the most reliable means of expressing cultural attachment and affirming family and friends bond. Family being a unit and an institution, face-to-face communication remains the most trusted and sufficient means of expressing views, strengthening union, and creating mutual understanding among members of this unit.
People’s understanding of the dynamics of society is represented in details by the trusted family and society face-to-face interaction. During these interactive discussions, an open free atmosphere enables people to express their independent opinion on issues touching social realities.
In relating to the above argument, it is in order to state that excessive preference of internet to interact will negatively and substantively put stress on existing society bonds. Same as face-to-face communication, internet media can reverse a group’s view of life either positively or negatively.
If the content directed to an audience is demystifying, the final effect over a period of time is the same. On the other hand if the content is inspirational, the audience may end up being an inspired lot. Often, teenagers prefer internet to face-to-face communication to express their teenage culture. However, this results in strains in relationship among family members as time and attention allocated for family interaction is limited.
Too much involvement with internet produces passive teenager. Passivity in most of these cases leads to development of persons with inadequate creativity as the individuals do not have time to exploit their talents in other fields such as creativity in expressing opinion and confidence in speaking.
Such passive teenagers might also find it difficult to creatively come up with solutions for problem solving in real life situations involving direct interaction with another party, friend, or even family member. In addition, internet addiction might undermine family life and create commercial hostility among teenagers.
These can be attributed to the fact that most teenagers take their time on the internet neglecting their social responsibility at the family level, have limited time interacting with their family members and are in most cases tempted to practice content borrowed from the internet in full during interaction characterized by vulgarity, slangs, and excessive informality (Preiss 17). In the process, the result forms part of strain in relationships and creation of rebellious attitude.
Generally, internet among teenagers provides a fertile ground for argumentative discussions on political, social, and religious aspects as the parties involved share very unique ideas.
In fact, their thoughts are well articulated to create the desirable views independent from societal conformity parameter. However, interpretation of messages discussed is not inclusive of the interface between the audience, the message, and the existing culture.
This is due to the fact that the decoder may not have substantive information to make out since they fall in the same age group and may lack knowledge on the topic. With the audience consisting of mostly people of the same age group, there is a connector between the audience and message.
However, this connection lacks the aspect of cultural behavior practiced by this audience who don’t have time to acquire the same from the family or society. Unless the message is integrated to factor in differences existing among the audience, the message is prone to misinterpretation or at worst rejection by the society who will feel sidelined (Burton 24).
From my findings, it is apparent that addition to the internet has also been blamed on poor academic performance which translates into strain in family relationships as the family will develop perception that excessive time is spent on internet than in studies.
As a result, the face to face interaction will be greatly affected as the teenager is likely to develop a rebellious attitude. excess in this area compromises the time that teenagers take consulting and doing assignments. In fact, most parents have faced a rough time in their quest to instill good studying habits among teenagers, as some are prone to studying while blogging despite protest from parents (Preiss 27).
Violence and aggression has also been identified as another negative effect of excessive dependence on internet as a means of communication. Since most of teenagers who spend excessive time lack social etiquette and negotiation skills, they are easily angered and response may lead to abusive language and physical confrontation.
This generally makes most teenagers to grow up with violent and aggressive behavior. Furthermore, these teenagers are often forced to emulate such characters and attitudes they obtain from the internet rather than seek guidance on the reality form family and the society (Shaffer 67).
Conclusively, from the above study, it is apparent that over reliance on internet as a means of communication negatively affect face-to-face interaction among family members, friends, and society for teenagers. It is apparent that expression of culture and affirmation of relationships are greatly compromised by internet communication as limited time is allocated on the same.
Therefore, the family should discuss differences between desire and reality to tell the teenagers on facts about actuality and offer other alternative sources of information other than relying on internet. This is achievable through creation of a general face to face interactive discussion among family members that include views of their teenage members.
Works Cited
Burton, Graeme. Media and Society: Critical Perspectives, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.
Ott, Brian, and Mack Leverette. Critical Media Studies: An Introduction, London: John Wiley and Sons, 2009. Print.
Preiss, Raymond. Mass media effects research: advances through meta-analysis, New York: Routledge, 2007. Print.
Shaffer, David. Social and Personality Development, Florence: Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.
Gang involvement of teenagers in most states has increased to a signifact level and is a constant cause of concern to parents, the authorities and the community at large. In this paper we are going to address the risks posed to teenagers by gangs, risk assessment and how best to protect the children from gangs and gang activities.
The risks involved to members of a gang will vary based on the kind of activities the gang is involved in. A gang involved in violent activities poses a greater risk of physical injury as opposed to a passive group.
In a gang where weapons such as guns and knives are involved a member of a gang is exposed to a threat of physical harm. Different gangs may dispute over territories since there is the element of power and to prove superiority one gang can engage the other in a fight heightening the risk of physical injury to a gang member.
Sexual assault is another risk from gangs. The number of women involved in gang activities is not as high as that of their male counter parts. The women involved are mostly girlfriends of the members of the gang. Nonmembers are exposed to the risk of rape just as the members are.
Most members of a gang will trade drugs to earn some extra income. While in the trade the risk of the teenager using drugs is higher as compared to when the individual is not in the business.
There are tell tales of gang involvement and a parent can assess if a child is involved in a gang or not. Below are some signs a parent can look out for when they feel that their child is part of a gang.
When your child has injuries that he or she cannot explain it may mean that they are involved in something out of the norm. The injuries may not necessarily mean that the child is involved in a gang but it should not be ignored.
A child involved in a gang will in most cases withdraw from the members of the family. This is usually a protective shield used to cover up what is really happening. A child will not only withdraw from his family but from friends who are not into the culture of being part of the gang.
Most gangs have symbols or signs representing them and the members of the gang will mostly have tattoos or accessories such as necklaces or bracelets bearing their ‘trademark’. The gang also uses some terms for communication without nonmembers getting the message being passed; it is some sort of coding. Hence if your child bears these tattoos or uses a different language from what he used to, then a parent should find out the reasons behind the change.
Studies have shown that the children exposed to more risk factors are prone to join gangs as compared to those exposed to one or no risk factor. Esbensen et al (2009) has discussed some of the risk factors. The following are the risk factors that can lead a child to join a gang.
The fact that children are engaged in aggression and bullying at early stages of their life heightens as they grow up in most cases ending up as gang members. In most cases they do so to enjoy protection, acceptance and at times to revenge.
A child form a single parent or a broken family stands a higher chance of joining a gang than the one in a stable family set up. Children who lack the presence of their parent end up being emotionally un balanced and end up joining gangs to make up for what they lack in their lives.
Kids want to fit in with their age mates and be accepted. If the friends they associate with are in gangs and they feel at risk of losing them, the kids will end up members of gangs just to maintain the friendships.
When children grow up in a neighborhood where the gang activities are the order of the day, they can end up as gang members since it is a continued culture in their community (Ralphs & Aldridge, 2004).
There are some measures that can be taken to protect a child from a gang. They include but are not restricted to:
Guidance and counseling helps in the recovery process. Due to the increased gang cases there are social programs which a child can be engaged in for guidance and counseling against gang activities. Parents ought to advocate for the support team for crisis management to prevent cases of violence as addressed by Clauss-Ehlets and Weist (2004).
Gangs can be prevented by ensuring that the children are protected from the risk factors. Parents are the best at early detection of gang involvement and will be very resourceful in safeguarding their children against gang involvement and in the recovery period. It is the collective responsibility of the community to ensure the environment is safe the children and future generations.
References
Clauss-Ehlers S. C & Weist D.M, (2004). Community planning to foster resilience in children. Springer
Esbensen, F., Peterson, D., Taylor, T. J., & Freng, A. (2009). Similarities and Differences in Risk Factors for Violent Offending and Gang Membership. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology (Australian Academic Press), 42(3), 310-335. doi:10.1375/acri.42.3.
Ralphs, R., Medina, J & Aldridge, J. (2009). Who needs enemies with friends like these? The importance of place for young people living in known gang area/DCSF-00064-2010.pdfwww.education.gov.uk/publications//…s. Journal of Youth Studies, 12(5), 483-500. doi: 10.1080/13676260903083356
Children between the ages of zero and six year are continuously learning and developing socially and emotionally. For an appropriate development, a child needs love and care from both parents. In the case of families experiencing domestic violence, the social and emotional development of children brought put in such families is affected negatively. Psychological wellness of the child is affected at early age and later in life.
Children are socialized by what they hears, what it sees other people do, the environment around the child the environments and so forth. The child is constantly learning the behaviour that will further be reflected in the teenage.
When a child is exposed to violence behaviour, he/she is more likely to take them positive and later in life at adolescence or a grown up finds itself violent because of what he saw. Technological improvement has brought different method of information dispensing as well socialization mediums, they are both electronic and print media that a child or teenager has access to.
One of the most notable information dispensers is television sets and radio; the technological devises airs both national and international news , TVs can be used to play visual and audio videos. With the increase in media freedom, the media has brought a number of issues that have influenced on the life of a people, they have sometimes aired programs, and music and news that can reign force the vice of violence in children and teenagers.
The people of the area uphold culture; it is transmitted to new entrants into the society; the culture covers in areas of language used by the people, the way they do thing, religion that they practice, structure, identity, norms, belief and values thy hold. there are some cultures that reinforce violence in their countries, for example among the Muslims, there is holy war culture, in case such information is aired through television, someone who does not understand the underlying principle is likely to think that violence pays.
Children and teenagers are spending more times with television sets than they are spending with other people because of the busy schedule of the people. How someone behaves is influence by the exposure that he has. TVs are offering an exposure that is changing increasing chances of violence among children and teenagers.
Although televisions and the media in general has opened and created a global culture among children and teenagers, the effect that it is having on their character building is sometimes negative. Children and teenagers are opened up to the world, which is a positive move however some of the issues they are getting opened to is having negative impact on their behaviour.
Studies have shown that to a certain extent, the media has contributed to the negative attitude and behaviour seen among communities in today is globalizing world. When media are not controlled, the negative effect is likely to prevail for long period and have a negative effect on societies and the world in general.
This annotated bibliography paper discusses how televisions increases violence among children and teenagers.
According to the article when media brings about a certain program that seems to advocate for violence among children, then chances are on the higher side that the children will be violent. When the media bring out a certain movie, that has a violent hero at the end of the day, the growing nature of children and teenagers are easily persuaded in many situations, they would identify themselves with the a violent character. In the efforts of trying to be like the character, they end up being violent themselves such programs include action movies.
Anonymous. “Is exposure to media violence a public-health risk?.” Lancet 9619(2008):1137. eLibrary. Web..
In the article, the writer is of the opinion that some programs aired in televisions have a negative effect on the health of human beings, some advocate for war and some even air camera tricks killings, children are much likely to think that is the nature of life and when they practice it they end up hurting others.
The writer condemns video game like Manhunt 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV, and feels they are likely to impact negatively on children watching them. Movies are made in such a way they have a message they are developing home. Some movies are meant to depict how portraying certain super national heroic aspects will be of benefit.
By Amanda Paulson Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor. “TV violence tough to curb despite FCC’s new plea.” Christian Science Monitor. 30 Apr. 2007: 2. eLibrary. Web..
The science monitor is pushing for a media violence act where the kind of movies , and programs that are aired over the media should be vetted and weighed for their effects. Action movies are in most cases developed in a way that the “master” or the “ninja” will outdo the local authorities like the police and can thus go ahead and commit a crime and move unhurt.
There is other that the hero intelligence and wisdom are portrayed when he can forecast the future with a good level of precision. What the movie leaves in the mind of the viewers is that one can easily succeed in life by following unlawful means. The fact that the hero always is successful is planting a seed of deviant behaviour in the population.
Congressional Testimony. STEREOTYPES AND DEGRADING IMAGES:STRAUSS ZELNICK. Federal Document Clearing House, 25 Sep. 2007. eLibrary. Web..
A documentary by Congressional Testimony looks down the effects that the media is bring to the society, they are of the opinion that media is building deviant behaviour among the youth.
A latest series called prison break was portraying an impression that running away from the prison was an easy task and all that was required is an organization among the intimates. Such a movie is in away encouraging crime since the criminal think that even after he has been convicted of a crime, he is smarter than the police are and can always run away from the prison.
This movie advocates for crime. Another movie that has a negative influence is “The predictor” by Arnold swarznegger in these movies the hero does not respect the authority but decides to go ahead and look for a predator. These entire movies are affecting negatively to children and teenagers.
Earles, K A; Alexander, Randell; Johnson, Melba; Liverpool, Joan; McGhee, Melissa. “Media influences on children and adolescents: Violence and sex.” Journal of the National Medical Association 9(2002):797. eLibrary. Web..
Media has had an impact on the morality levels in our communities, some programs like music and movies are seen to advocate for sex and violence. The way some songs are shot, they are in most places in posy bars and restaurants. The main character is portrayed to have an access to all the women and can buy beer in a great way.
If this is, the hero that children are going to imitate the resultant society will be a society of immorality; since the achievement is seen as if it is measured by how immoral, one is. The value and salinity of sex is eroded when they show that it can be done anytime anywhere.
Fraracci, Lauren. “Television: Teacher of violence.” Social Studies Review. 01 Apr. 2002: 77. eLibrary. Web..
Fraracci observes modern society and how parents have become busy and leaving the role of socialization to the media, the article is of the opinion that currently children are using more time on the television than their mentors and parents. When this happen they are likely to take over the values portrayed over the media, which may reinforces violence and immorality in children and teenager. The writer blames current vice of early sex to media.
Hurst, Marianne D. “Researchers Target Impact of Television Violence.” Education Week. 17 Nov. 2004: 8. eLibrary. 10th Apr. 2011.
The writer take a look on how media and their material has impacted on children; he says that you will hear the children trying to talk like the personalities in these music videos and the movies they see; this shows they have established a certain character in a movie personality they would like to follow. In most case the personality is not right thus misleading a child. Other than the crime part, there is immorality that some of the programs aired. The dancers are portrayed as having a good life despite the fact that they are dancing when almost naked. Their dancing mode is that they encourage immorality in the society. Immorality is the foundation of crime.
Jipguep, Marie-Claude; Sanders-Phillips, Kathy. “The Context of Violence for Children of Color: Violence in the Community and in the Media.” Journal of Negro Education 4(2003):379. eLibrary. Web..
The writer connects the violence and heartlessness prevailing among people in communities to have some roots in the medias that children’s are exposed. For example, some movies and music, especially those that are made in Jamaica (Reggae), advocate for the use of drugs.
Some of them are for the opinion that taking bhang is not a crime. If someone, more so a child interprets the message in the wrong way, he can easily get in the vice. Young innocent children after watching the movies have been seen to try smoking something. The songs are also shot in a club setting and the most respected person is the one who can buy beers more to others this enforces a bad behaviour.
Lavers, Daphne. “Media violence: Ugly and getting uglier.” World & I. 01 Mar. 2002: 68. eLibrary. Web..
The writer of the article is of the opinion that the influence of media is getting worse and more children are likely to be misguided by the media programs they see. The media has a very strong driving force to the perception and the attitude that the public is going to have.
This is through the movies that they air as well as the news that they put a lot of weight. If the media portrays something as morally good, or gives the impression that by following a certain way one will be successful, then the public is more likely to believe this as the truth. The way that it advocates for the occurrence of crime may be in a direct way or indirect way. It opens a child to the outside environment through the programs.
MICHAEL PAUL WILLIAMS. “DANGEROUS MESSAGES? MEDIA VIOLENCE ABOUNDS; SO DOES DEBATE ON ITS EFFECTS.” Richmond Times-Dispatch. 13 Oct. 1994: A-1. eLibrary. Web..
The writer is of the view that children and teenagers are the most affected by what the media broadcasts, since their mind is fresh and they may lack the needed guidelines from the parents especially in this era that all the parents are working.
They tend to believe the information that is given by the media as the gospel truth. In the streets, you will find the children playing in a wrestling ways. They even call themselves names of wrestling personalities as they play. They tend to do what they were watching and may hurt themselves. If this is not rectified, chances that they will become violent people in future are high.
Chapman, J. (2000). Adolescent sex and mass media: a developmental approach. Miami: Herald.
This book has a different approach to adolescent sex. Adolescent sex can be largely blamed on mass media that has been promoting it in one way or the other. In this case, mass media has not controlled the way it airs sexual materials thereby exposing teens. This means that there are no control mechanisms to look at the content that is being aired.
The author believes that mass media should be at the forefront developing teens but this has been the opposite where they have played a big role in destroying them. As much as the media plays an important role in our society, it will be better if there are enough control measures to develop adolescents well as far as sex is concerned.
Brown, D. (2002). Mass media influences on sexuality. New York: Harper & Row.
Browns’ book offers an insight on the fact that mass media has an influence on sexuality in a broad way and this is in comparison with previous generations. According to him, the previous generation was not exposed a lot to mass media and that is why we had slight cases and instances of teenage sexuality.
In this case, he argues that there should be controls to ensure that teenagers are not exposed to a lot of sexual content that can end up influencing them negatively. Teens should not be restricted to access mass media but there is need for responsibility from the media itself on what should be done.
Ponton, L. (2000). The Sex Lives of Teenagers. New York: Dutton
The author argues that the sex life of teenagers has been changing drastically in recent years because of various reasons. As a matter of fact, he believes that this trend is so alarming that more needs to be done to avert this situation. There are various reasons that can be behind the increase of adolescent sex in our society and this is what needs to be looked at.
This is based on the fact that the number of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases has been increasing. The society should rise up to the occasion and guide teens on morality issues for their own good.
Analysis
Each book has effectively talked about the issue of today’s teens becoming sexually active and aware at a much younger age than the previous generations well. The first book largely blames an increase in the awareness of sex in teens on mass media. In this case, all the blame should be put on mass media because they have made it possible for teens to learn more about sex thereby engaging in it. From the argument, teenagers could not have learned more about sex were it not for mass media.
The second book evaluates the influence of mass media on the present generation in comparison with the previous generations. As much as mass media was in existence before, the content that was aired was not poisoned like what we are having today. For instance, pornographic sites and other advertisements have made teens curious as far as sex is concerned thereby going on to discover more.
As far as the third book is concerned, the rate at which teens are engaging in sex is alarming and there should be efforts to reverse this for the society’s well being. Teens morals should be molded from an early stage and this will not be achieved with such trends.
Most of what has been discussed in these books resonates well with the topic. There are no flows as far as covering the issue of teens becoming sexually active at a younger age is concerned. In this case, there are no ethical lines that have been crossed in trying to explain this issue.
The most important aspect is that both books have acknowledged the fact that teenage sex is on the rise and this is because of various factors and there should be efforts to counter this. All books link this increase in awareness to a number of factors that need to be evaluated.