Monday, November 3, 2008

Media as Norm-Setting Tool

After reading at The Onion about using mainstream media to desensitize Americans to brutality, you can read at CNN about using television to indoctrinate children to become impregnated as a teen.

The first may be a bit of a joke ... almost ... but the second is quite real.

Just like kids who learn how to lie on television (and don't realize how transparent they are at it, how bad, and how easily caught) and learn it wrong, naïve kids without perspective on normal relationships apparently learn from shows like Sex and the City and Friends that it's normal to play musical beds, and that you end up with a ginormous New York home worth a fortune if you do. Something for parents to think about when they decide to let the television substitute as a bargain-priced baby sitter. Maybe the price is higher than they reckon.

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