Michelle

Negative Effects

Hello my name is Michelle. I was born on February 8, 1982 in Louisville, Kentucky. I have a twin brother and we are 6 minutes apart.

One of my favorite memories about my childhood is the first year I got the chance to visit my father and my stepmother in Chicago for the first time. I remember how I asked my mother could I go back home with my dad? My heart was beating 90 miles an hour and thoughts of how Chicago was going to be were running through my head. When my mother said yes I was overwhelmed. I did not know were to began as in what I should pack or anything I just knew that I was able to go to Chicago. As we were on the road to Chicago, every hour on the hour I would ask my dad were we there are not because I was so excited to get there. When we finally got there I was so excited I fail straight to sleep.

As I look back on this memory I realize why I call it my favorite because I know how grateful I am to have a family that cares enough to take me places and spend time with me. At that time in my life I really wanted my relationship with my mother and father to become stronger than what it was.

Another memory that I have is when I was doing some community service in a nursing home with the key club in my school and I was giving out valentine cards to the elderly people. There was a lady that wanted to sit up in her chair but she couldn't find anyone around to help her. I was heading down the hall she caught my attention because she tried to lift herself on her on but I asked her if she needed any help and she said yes if that is not a problem. When I lifted the lady and put her in the chair she was so grateful that a student helped her, because she believed that there was not a lot of nice kids still around that are nice. So that really made my day because it put a smile on her face and now she knows that are still good kids in this world.

Media Pros and Cons
The media plays a very significant part in our everyday lives. It's hard to even imagine that there was a time when the daily newspaper and the television did not exist. How did everyone survive? We once had to receive current events by word of mouth. Now with the touch of the remote or a click on your computer we can gain immediate access to the latest happenings. If we need to know how to dress for our day, simply turn on television to the news channel and get the weather report. It is possible to now get a moment by moment status on the stock market through the media.
By the time our children enter preschool, they already know their alphabet, how to count, and science, through watching the discover channel, Sesame Street, The Magic School Bus etc.. Children are great imitators, therefore they pick up behavior habits from what they observe from the media. Bed-ridden, lonely, elderly, incarcerated, people are kept company by the television. There are channels for the churchgoer, the hunter, the fisher, and the cook. School students even have homework that requires watching television. We are able to stay abreast of political events, whether they are world or local.

Through the media, there is a lot of job opportunity, which, is providing a means of survival for a lot of people. Creative energies are expressed through the media. Great actors, screenwriters, directors, producers, have gained world fame via the media. Some were able to observe the first walk on the moon and other monumental events by way of media. We have seen the effects of war, famine, floods, earthquakes, and tornadoes by simply turning on the television. Kidnappers, and murderers have been caught due their faces appearing in the newspaper or on television. Our favorite movie stars or music artists' personal lives can be read about or seen through the media. It's a wonderful invention!
Has the media been a positive or negative tool? I'd have to say both. We've also had a sacrifice a lot to gain this great tool called "the media." Families are spending less time actually communicating with each other. Parents know less and less about where the children's heads are. The television has become a babysitter for a lot of children. The little boy that watched a karate movie, suddenly thinks he is an automatic martial artist. The already emotionally disturbed, sees a "Halloween" episode and mimics the act. I can't help but wonder if the terrorist movies we see doesn't plant a seed that will someday imitated (if hasn't already happened). Not so long ago, children played outside and hated when it was time to come in, Video games, and the movie channel keeps a vast majority of children in front of a television screen for hours on end, resulting in a lack of exercise and a major surge of obesity in children today. This does not only apply to children, but adults as well. The media tends to have absolutely no respect for ones personal life, especially those in the public eyes.

I believe that a person's destiny was predestined long before he/she was born. But I also can't help but think that had the media not been so dogmatic the night Princess Diana died, the tragic car accident that took her life might not have happened.

The media is portraying nudity, casual sex, and being super thin as being normal. Are we sure we want our now five year old boys and girls (who are able to see all of this on television at any time of day or night), to grow up thinking that those acts are normal? There are many cases of anorexia resulting from what society says is the ideal way to look. Young impressionable minds are being convinced that having two moms (lesbians or dads (homosexual) is "o.k." We can observe same sex marriages through the media. Some will say that that is a personal choice left up to the individual how the choose to live their lives. In my opinion, that is not what I want my children to accept as being commonplace. Convicted murderers and rapists have been interviewed and have admitted that violent and/or porn movies motivated them to commit the acts they were serving time for. So should the media be banished? How would we like things the "old" way as in days gone by? Should we do away with the television and newspaper? I would say no, but there surely should be some boundaries that should not be crossed. Who's to decide what is, or what's not, acceptable material for public viewing?

The question caused major fights in the courts already. The law has designed "rights" for the media that allows them to televise material that, I feel, is not suitable for children nor adults. It boils down to an individual's choice for themselves and their household. We have to train our children to know what is right and wrong. Monitor (as best as we can) what they watch on television, the music they listen to, books they read as well as what is being taught in our schools.
When they get to the age of making decisions for themselves, parents will have to trust that their teachings will follow when the child goes off on their own. I'm a firm believer that they eye is the doorway to the mind. What we see is recorded in our minds and we contemplate what we see and hear and act accordingly. It is very important that we are able to keep things in perspective. It is also important to me to have a spiritual base to govern my life. My way is Jesus the Savior of the World. He is the person, who prompts my conscious to know what is ok and is not. It works for me, and I believe it would work for anyone who tries it. I believe that a spiritually based home that has guidelines and boundaries under subjection is the only way a dependable answer to negative media.

Again, this is a matter of choice. But when you're grounded, in Christ, what you see or hear that is alien to what he teaches won't phase you. Hence being "in the world" but not of the world. Passing those teaching on to the children and future your generations to come, would ward off the negative effects the media would have on them as well as cultivate the positive potential they have through using the media. That is the way I see it.

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