Subliminal messages

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HI>Bro. Griffin,
HI>     I can almost see your point, BUT, (not to be rude) there is really
HI>nothing wrong with TV's and VCR's.  If there were, we should all throw out
HI>our computers seeing as there is as much trash out there we can pick up with
HI>them, as we can with a TV and the like. Personally, the only reason I have
HI>TV/VCR is to keep my son occupied when I study.  That's the only time he
HI>gets to watch it.  Good things like Bible story videos.  No harm in that.
HI>Yes, TV/VCR's do bring much filth into peoples homes, but like everything
HI>else, as Christians, we have a choice of what to watch, and what not to.
HI>Sorry if I'm stepping on any toes out there.


The Big Picture

Television's Effect on Children, Families and Society

An Interview with George Hottecker



Q. As a first-grade teacher, how do you see television impacting your

students?



A. I see clear, observable differences between those students who watch

television and those who don't. The watchers fidget in their chairs,
their

eye contact is less stable, their attention to stories is significantly

shortened. The level of inappropriate noise, electronic beeps and
burps, is

greatly increased as is the level of aggressive behavior. The
television

watchers seem to be less tolerant, less flexible, more likely to treat

other students as objects, semi-unconsciously kicking and pushing
against

other children.



Children who watch TV are trained to have short attention spans. They
find

it difficult to maintain interest in their tasks or to find
satisfaction in

the actual events that are going on. They find it difficult to stay
focused

on an activity; consequently they may "fall out" of the group activity,

which can often lead to negative acting-out behavior.



Q. What's wrong with watching supposedly nonviolent, educational,

commercial-free shows like Sesame Street?



A. The latest studies show that children between the ages of three and
six

spend an average of 26 hours per week watching television. That means
that

television is having a huge impact on children at an extremely critical

stage in their formative development. All television viewing, even

supposedly educational shows like Sesame Street, undermine the
children's

development because the very act of watching television has negative

consequences, regardless of the content of the shows. In addition to
the

shortened attention spans, increased passivity, erosion of the
imagination,

and loss of time spent in beneficial activities, television attacks the

child's emerging sense of reality. When children watch television, they

know that the images they see on the screen are not real. Yet they
process

their emotions as if the events were actually happening. Although
children

know that Bert and Ernie are not real people who are having a real
quarrel,

children still feel the confusion and sadness they would feel in the

presence of a real quarrel. So children begin to develop a fundamental

schism as a result of getting the message that they need to deny the

validity of their sense perceptions.



Although many parents buy into shows like Sesame Street because they

purport to help children get ahead by teaching letters and math skills,

early television watching demonstrably erodes children's success
potential.

Even shows like Sesame Street numb the brain and numb the senses. They

break down the ability to do sequential thinking, and furthermore they
do a

subtle violence to the overall sensory organization of the child.



Q. What impact do you think TV has on society as a whole?



A. Television viewing endangers children, families and our whole social

structure. First of all, it makes a direct assault on the child's
emerging

imaginative faculties. Never before has there been such an assault as

within the past two decades. We're seeing a complete revolution in the
way

children develop. They are watching someone else's imagination instead
of

developing their own imaginative capacities. This loss has deep

implications for our society; we are losing a heritage that humans have

operated out of for centuries. Our whole moral and social fabric
depends on

the ability to imaginatively cooperate with another person while

maintaining a sense of the self. Children test their personality in
role

play through imaginative play with others. If they haven't had a chance
to

test themselves and really learn who they are, they'll arrive at

adolescence with a lack of identity and a devalued sense of self.
Lowered

self-esteem is directly linked to lower valuation of others.



Our society is becoming increasingly violent, and a large percentage of
the

crime is being committed by tens between the ages of fourteen and
nineteen.

Time and again, when confronted after committing a crime, teens are in

tremendous denial and abandon all sense of responsibility for their
action.

Shooting at someone has become a surreal activity, partially because we

have been anaesthetized to the reality of the act by seeing it
thousands of

times on television.



Worldwide, for millennia, human beings have used archetypal images in
story

and song and dance and art to pass on the heritage of the culture. Some
of

these images carried behavioral warnings: Don't kill. Don't steal. Some

archetypes carried the vision of human nobility and greatness. In
contrast,

television promotes hollow, fleeting empty sensory impressions. We have
a

choice. We can use our time to seek out meaningful experiences that can

lead to individualized truth, or we can lapse into the generalized
cynicism

that television promotes.



Q. What steps can parents take to reduce or eliminate television
watching?



A. First of all, get television out of the living room. Put it in an
adult

bedroom or basement or closet. Replace television viewing with more

constructive activity. Get books from the library and read to the
children.

Act out stories with little hand puppets. Replace TV with any artistic

activity: painting, dancing, sand play, music. Bring out the artist in

yourself. At first children will need parallel play. You will need to
stay

with them until they make the transition out of a passive TV mentality
to a

more creative self-directed state.



Many parents resort to the TV so they can get housework done while the

children are occupied. Instead, try to involve the children in the work
as

much as possible. They can fold towels or sweep or dust or wash
vegetables.

Children learn socialization and pre-vocational skills when involved in
the

work of the household. Since the dawn of civilization, mothers and
fathers

have been capable of occupying children during the course of normal
human

activity. We must maintain this ability, or children will not know what

normal human activity is. Talk about self-esteem! Children who enter
school

with skills necessary to maintain an orderly environment are light
years

ahead of their fidgety, dependent classmates.



Q. What are the benefits to family life that come from turning off the

television?



A. A family without TV has the increased possibility of being a family
with

a lot of interaction and communication. The TV either drowns out voices
or

else sucks them up into sarcastic one-liners. In my family, everything

stops when we hear a sarcastic put-down. We can't afford to go to bed

hostile with each other. There's no escape. We can't turn the channel.

We're here. We have a sense of permanence. We have to resolve our
problems.

Furthermore, without TV, there's time for lots of wonderful activities;

music, sports, reading, games, community events, socializing. Also the

rhythms of life are tied to the day's activities, not to the station's

programming schedules.



Q. The picture you are painting of family life is wonderful, but it

requires a lot of parental time and effort. What suggestions do you
have

for single parents?



A. Try to approximate the family situation and create it in an extended

way. Seek out a like-minded single parent and team up with him or her.

Cultivate a relationship with that person and his or her children and

support each other. Support can come in many ways. Perhaps there is a

senior citizen who'd love to develop a "foster grandparent"
relationship

with a single parent striving for a high quality family life. The main

thing I'd urge is to hold on to your values and not compromise.

Complementary situations will appear.



[George Hottecker has been working with children since 1970. After

receiving his degree in Elementary Education with a specialty in Child

Psychology, he worked as program director for Temple University's

residential treatment program for severely disabled children. He has
been

on the faculty of the Live Oak Waldorf School in Applegate since 1984.]