Where Are We?

Family Circle - an obviously family-friendly magazine regularly warning against the “dangers” of the internet, YouTube, TV, and other forms of media - again warned parents about the “history of violence” on TV and in video games in their December 2007 publication. They wrote of a study that found “…that watching violence leads to increased heart rate and blood pressure, angry feelings and hostile thoughts...” But hell! I know my heart rate increased when Leonardo DiCaprio kissed Kate Winslet in Titanic, or when Johnny Depp kissed Kiera Knightley in Pirates of the Carribean… or when Hay- you get the picture. So heart rate and blood pressure’s just fluff, just another way to beef up the list and make it sound all bad. Angry feelings and hostile thoughts, though. That’s significant, right?

Sure, it’s significant. But what does it really mean, and what qualifies as a hostile thought? I’ve watched the news for the past several years, and often got angry feelings and hostile thoughts, too. When I heard about such-and-such murder, or the happenings in the Middle East. Does that mean my parents shouldn’t’ve let me see what went on in the world? Should I have lived at the age of 15 entirely oblivious to the world around me - only to have the ability to vote 3 years later?

To the magazine’s credit, most of their article promoted parental supervision of how much children watched and the use of the semi-recent V-Chip. But what they don’t address is how much of the bad part of society’s influence (the drugs, the junk food ads, the over-the-top sex) can be stemmed off by continued parental interaction outside of limiting TV shows. If you’re worried about how much your kids are eating, don’t blame the food ads first – ask yourself how much you’ve shown your kids how to eat a healthy diet outside of a simple “eat your fruits and vegetables” mantra. Do you stock up the house with healthy, low calorie foods? Or is there always at least one Doritoes bag at the bottom of the pantry? Do you avoid fast-food restaurants, or is it your cop-out for when you just don’t feel like making a decent dinner for the 4th time that week?

And when your little girl moves out of the house when she’s 18 or 19 and she gets an apartment of her own with a TV of her own and watches Gray’s Anatomy or Sex and the City and thinks that Hollywood’s way of promiscuous sex is the way that good relationships should be founded upon because you avoided the issue by hiding those shows, don’t call her naïve.