Raising a child has become a whole new adventure with the advent of the internet. Because of the inundation of information that came with it, teachers, parents, and all others involved in the up-bringing of children have been given an increasingly stressful job. Not only is there an influx of information, there is also a whole new on-slot of inappropriate subject matter to try to negotiate. With so much content, and so few ways to censor it, raising a child really has become a whole new escapade.
When an individual is growing up its important that he or she is exposed to a certain amount of serious and graphic content. Without it, that person will grow up in an unrealistic world and end up with a “sheltered” perspective. However, there is a fine line between enough and too much. Too much, and the individual can become desensitized — a significant, but unpublicized, problem.
This desensitization, to such things as violence, immorality, and dishonesty, can severely corrupt youth — and sadly, this problem isn’t always fully understood.
When students are found to be unsympathetic and impersonal in class and at home, this problem of desensitization is not far off. Things such as increased disrespect, violence, and bullying can all be considered symptoms of this problem.
Ultimately, the idea that watching inappropriate content on television promotes inappropriate action in youth is not a difficult argument — the degree to which that is true is more arguable, but because of the immense exposure to the content, a considerable effect is plausible. Because of this, a direct correlation can be formed: the more inappropriate subject matter, the less sensitive to the real world a student becomes.
With this understanding, and with the start of a new year, let me propose a challenge: re-sensitize schools. By shifting the focus from “television teaching” to real-world teaching, a far more understanding, respectful, and aware generation can be raised. Even if the problem is complex, there is a simple solution: this year take the focus off of the television and put it back onto the community. Maybe through this, we can re-sensitize not only the schools, but also the communities.
This seems like a very simplistic diagnosis to a complex, multi-faceted problem. Research has shown that there is no direct correlation between television and youth violence and
“de-sensitization”. It is tempting to find causality there, but unfortunately none exists. So suggesting that the solution lies merely in turning off the TV and focusing on the community sounds nice but it wholly unrealistic.
This is still a contributing factor because there is bound to be subconscious association. It’s simply shifting the focus from the unreal world of exaggeration to that of reality.
Who, then, should be the judge of what is deemed ” inappropriate” or not?