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rely on the mass media to get the current news and facts about what is
important and what we should be aware of.
We have put our trust on the media as an authority to give us news,
entertainment and education. However, the influence of mass media on
our kids, teenagers and society is so big that we should know how it
really works. The media makes billions of dollars with the advertising
they sell and that we are exposed to, every single moment. We buy what
we are told to buy by the media. After seeing thousands of advertisings
we make our buying decisions based on what we saw on Tv, newspapers
or magazines. These are the effects of mass media especially in
teenagers, they buy what they see on Tv, what their favourite celebrity
advertise and what is acceptable by society based on the fashion that the
media has imposed on them.
There are some positive and negative influences in young people
of our society due to these ad campaigns in the media. Here is a positive
influence example, if there is a quiz show on education that is getting a
lot of attention by the media and gains popularity among your friends
and society, you will more likely want to actively participate and watch
these quiz shows. These activities are good for the society and will
promote literary activities in the youth. However a negative influence in
teenagers is the use of guns and ammunition by celebrity movie stars,
the constant exposure of which would seduce the teen to replicate the
same behaviour in the real life. When we watch tv or a action movie we
usually see many images of violence and people hurting others. The
problem with this is that it can become traumatic especially in our
children as they see it more and more. Our kids that are starting to grow
and are shaping their personality values and beliefs can become
aggressive or they can lose a sense of distinction between reality and
fiction. Another problem is that real war is used as a form of
entertainment by the media, we should make our kids and teen aware
that war is not a form of entertainment and that there is no win or lose
like in video games, in real war everyone lose.
Teens, youngsters are in a stage of life where they want to be
accepted by their peers, they want to be loved and be successful. The
media creates the ideal image of beautiful men and women with all the
ingredients of a successful person, you can see it in movies and tv. It’s a
subliminal way to persuade the masses that if you want to be successful
and look like them then you have to buy that particular brand or product.
Another negative influence in teenagers, especially in the USA, that has