Haines 1 Ryan Haines Mrs.

Eaker 4/3/13 First Final Draft Round Table Paper Media, the means of mass communication, has leaped in the last century. What use to take hours to communicate may be even days, is now in our inbox within 5 seconds. We cant escape it because it has become embedded into our society as a whole. The real question is how is it affecting us? What is it doing to our culture, and what affect is it having on the teenagers of today? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves and take a step back and look at it. The role of media has become a scapegoat for the reason youth are acting out. In writing this paper I hope to discover some of side effects media has on teenagers. Through looking at the different perspectives of scholars, teens, and parent I will grasp a whole point of view of media. The youth are the subject of this research. They are mainly defined between 8-18 as soon to be or young adults. Almost all teens are included in this point of view because media in some way affects them all. Youths opinions are often left out because it is believed the y are too young to be educated in what they are talking about, but being that this subject is about them, it seems only right to give them a voice and let their opinion heard. When talking about media, a majority of young people say that television and the computers are just forms of entertainment that do not affect their social and emotional well-being. But there some youth who observe a different point of view on this. More than one in four teens say that using social media makes them feel more outgoing. On the other hand about a third of social network users (34%) either strongly or somewhat agree that using their social network site takes away from the time they have for
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Haines 2 socializing in person(Common 22). This website is a devoted source about the media and its impact on society as a whole. The many different authors of the site are professors and doctors that research on the topics. This shows that teenagers have an objective out view on the way media is in their lives. For example 45% agree that they get frustrated with their friends for texting or checking their social networking sites instead of paying attention to them (Connected 25). Pedro Francesc was the Professor of Comparative Education and Public Policy at the Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona) and Academic Director of its Program for Educational Quality. This goes against the popular belief that youth are blind to the effect of media and the role it plays in their lives. The youth of today are mostly educated about the affects of media, it is constantly shown through media, such as advertisements against Anti-Bullying and warning to go outside instead of stay inside. Youth are mostly knowledgeable about the harm media can have if not controlled rationally. Parents, and also guardians, are a big part of this research subject. The parents of this generation were not born with media as we have it today. Mainly media was more restricted and less available compared to todays society. Being known as Generation Z, the name given to our generation under the impression that technology would ruin us, parents have been struck by fear from propaganda and lies. The parents opinion often is filled with concern and worry about how media affects their children because they did not have the influence of media like today. Parents are the main drive for this research because they are the ones asking the questions of how it is affected and what causes they should expect. When looking for what parents thought about teens and the media I found a lot of sources talking only about how to parent them away from it. Finally I found a website by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a U.S. based non-profit organize focusing on the major issues of health care in the U.S., I found that Two-thirds of parents say they are very concerned that children in this country are being exposed to too much inappropriate content in the media, and a substantial proportion think sex (55%) and violence (43%) in the media contribute a lot to young peoples behavior (Rideout 3). This survey shows a percent of how parents that are concerned about youth and what their afraid of teens being exposed to making it

Haines 3 essential to the understanding what media is truly about. This survey is done by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which looks in to the health affects on families in different ways. Parents are often concerned that as their child is growing up there is more affecting their decisions then just their parents and subject their parents know about. According to the study by Rideout, during a focus group of parents, the group came to an agreement that media was an influence on their own children. Mainly parents are just afraid because they are the first generation to have fought the influence of media and encourage their own influence. 59% of the parents of teen users of social networking sites have talked with their child because they were concerned about something posted to their profile or account(Madden). This research was done by project group called Youth and Media who research and advocate the information about youth and technology. They gain this opinion through watching their child growing up in a different society that they had grown up in. Parents are concerned that their youth arent being responsible with the media they have been given, that they are not knowledgeable in the consequences. Scholars are the most factual based point of view out of the three. Their job is to remain unbiased as they gather research and evidence to support their thesis. Through analyzing youths answers to surveys, the amount of media usage youth have, and their scores on different test, researchers are able to draw a conclusion on what affects media is having on the youth of today. Through research scholars have found that the less concentrated youth in a group actually are more likely to use media the most. It has also become evident that youth look towards media to change their current emotional state. In the book Kids & Media by Donald F. Roberts, who received a Ph.D. from Stanford, dedicating his life researching the impact media has on youth, he finds there is a upcoming concern that people will seek some sort of message from the media to change their current emotional state and this will only amplify the original state, especial in youth of todays society(society (Roberts 27). This upcoming concern has seen in some evidence as media messages and youth involvement has grown

Haines 4 over the decades. This concern has grown over the last few years as depression in teens has risen and media has only excelled. The main message researchers want to convey is the major difference an adult makes in a youths life. Also another key finding I found from scholars is that media has never been so easy to access on the go. In a report Vivian Vahlberg notes The transformation of the cell phone into a media content delivery platform, and the widespread adoption of the iPod and other MP3 devices, have facilitated an explosion in media consumption among American youth. The development of mobile media has allowed indeed, encouraged young people to find even more opportunities throughout the day for using media, actually expanding the number of hours when they can consume media, often while on the go.(Vahlberg 4). This has been one of the main reasons that youths involvement has increased over the past 5 years. If an adult is present and paying attention in their life, the likely hoodlikelihood of them seeking emotional change through media is less and also they are more likely to put the device down to and be more involved in the outside world. As it would appear from all the main roles in this paper, it is evident that media plays a huge role in our society. Media is always growing with technological advancements and will never stop. What our role as its users is to put the handle on it and ensure that it does not engulf us. The main thing to remember is moderation, that with anything moderat ion is necessary and that we shouldnt allow it to take up our whole lives. Media does seem to play a role on youth, but mainly only youth who dont seem to have another outlet for their attention. Overall media is a great thing and a terrible thing; it honestly depends on who uses it.

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Citation Page
"Teens Think That Using Social Media Has Positive Impact | Common Sense Media. Teens Think That Using Social Media Has Positive Impact | Common Sense Media. N.p., 26 June 2012. Web. 26 Mar. 2013. Rideout, Victoria. "Parents, Children & Media: A Kaiser Family Foundation Survey - Kaiser Family Foundation." Parents, Children & Media: A Kaiser Family Foundation Survey Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Family Foundation, 19 June 2007. Web. 27 Mar. 2013. Pedr , Francesc. Connected Minds: Technology and Today's Learners. Paris: OECD, 2012. Print. Roberts, Donald F, and Ulla G. Foehr. Kids and Media in America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Print.
Madden, Mary. "Report: Parents, Teens, and Online Privacy | Youth and Media." Youth and Media. Youth and Media, 20 Nov. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. Vahlberg, Vivian. American Press Institute. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Americanpressinstitute. Spring 2010. Web. 24 Apr. 2013.