The Effects Of Music Videos On Children Young People Essay

Music wakes up in our minds in the morning to the point of making us want to dance and probably soothing us when we have sand feelings. From our childhood through teenage to adulthood, music becomes our integral part in our whole life. At teenage, music helps define the characteristics of an individual. Pediatricians have tried to specialize in adolescent medicine and also consider the power of music and how it affects their identity. The impact on the individual’s cultural and social boundaries is highly attributed to the long average hours of listening to music.

Despite the fact that there is extensive variety of genres of music, adults and children differ on how they select the content to listen to. With the ability to discern what is right and what is wrong, adults may not be highly affected by the current behavior or social ills. Children on the other hand are much prone to the attractive violent category of music; the music contains plots that draw adolescents and other minority. During the development stages in adolescent, children try to discover their own Hero and role models. This means that the environment in which these children spend and grow will give them the character they want as own hero. At this time, the most inspiring issue to the child is to get what she or he wants. Assuming that the child has personal problems o challenges that he or she wants to defeat, it would be easier to prefer violent characters on TV and then adopt their way of doing things. Most of the hip hop music for instance contains violent engagements, use of drugs, sexual situations as well as sexual violence. The child would then develop with the notion that he or she must be violent or arrogant to survive in life. Heavy metal music has extreme alienating effects on developing children which includes psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, sex-role stereotyping and suicide risk. If a child displays violent acts against other children, the parent or the teacher has to pay close attention the music being listened to by children (Kathy & John).

Most music videos may show half naked women which affect the mental health of a child. Due to the societal behavioral classification, this mode of dressing is not acceptable in public. Therefore children experience severe mental strain in deciding what to accept as a norm or evil. Depending on the exposure the child experiences, the child can develop in favor of the environment. A child can grow in a calm environment which may promote the wellbeing of the child. Calm videos can help the child admire to have the future he or she sees on the TV or such media. These groups of children prefer to stay in peaceful environment and mostly tend to be obedient and accepted in the society.

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On the other hand violent videos tend to portray that the world is much violent than the way it is. This makes children believe that their home is the only exemption that is safe. Children get deceived that their families must align with the society. Children do not have great exposure to the outer society due to their parental care. This leaves the children to understand the community to be home and TV or digital media. This means that if the parents do not stay at home for long hours, the child may end up adopting the media culture other than the home culture. The child advances in being violent and aggressive through the adolescent to early adulthood. The cognitive scripts developed by children are developed through imitating media heroes. Most of these are adopted from violent music videos and shows. As teenagers and children watch these violent acts, they are able to internalize these scripts and become effective in influencing the life of the individual (Mhhe.com).

Fashion is one of the areas that teenagers and children want to feel like they rule. They always want to outdo others, either among themselves or when alone. Celebrities adopt specific fashion for different tracks and videos; this leaves the child in a much vulnerable and delicate situation of selecting the style they want. These fashion problems may become an issue to the family since they may not be acceptable to the parents and the general public. The tense can lead to family problems where parents engage in physical confrontation with the child. Children on the other hand are not in a position to argue with the situation in which case they may be drawn away from their family. Areas in which fashion affects girl child includes scanty dressing, improper make up usage and use of drugs to change their body contour to look attractive. Boys may not experience extensive effects since the society does not set what is morally incorrect for the boy child. The problem however may be pronounced in a Christian family setting. This means that children can negatively be affected by such fashion (Media Awareness Network).

The other problem area that music videos affect children during development is the misuse and use of alcohol in children. Video show explicit situations where young people are using alcohol and drugs. The child thinks that such use of drugs and alcohol would make the known and respected in the society. Since the video may not be only one that show such behaviors, the child tend to think that use of drugs or alcohol does not have any consequences after all. Although they may see warning signs on billboards highlighting the negative effects of using drugs and alcohol in young age, they do not get convinced as they get while watching a video. Such a child faces the wrath of using such drugs and alcohol to a point of addiction. The problem with such addiction is that they would require the individual to get medical attention and rehabilitation to recover and have a normal life again. Before the child or a parent discovers this problem, the child would have wasted a lot of precious time that could be used to develop talents and discover his or her mission in life. As earlier said, children may not be in a position to determine their role model with a conscious mind; the prominent environment chooses for them (Media Awareness Network).

Language is the other aspect of a child that is affected by these videos. A child would always want to develop his or her commanding ability especially among peers or to use when asking something from the parent. The process of developing such that he or she can command respect naturally can get interfered with through audio and visual media. When the child sees someone on video eliciting vulgar words to others and gets what he needs done, and then the child will find it easier and efficient. The fact that such language is common in hard music which happens to be wide spread, the child assumes that such language is allowed in the society. The child ends up adopting the vulgar language for use in the community. Such children get discriminated in a society that values respectful individuals (Media Awareness Network).

Fear is the other effect the music videos can have on the children. Children always want to feel safe and secure; it may not be the case when they discover that the world is not as they take it. Guns and deaths seem exaggerated on videos such that the child feels that anyone can be killed anytime and the criminal goes scot-free. The child may develop fear that this may happen to him or her or even to one of the family members. This can result to negative development of such children. With advancement in video production technology, video animation has become much easier. Some videos contain pictures showing situations where human being are being traumatized by unknown creatures, such video can be a fear factor to a child who has not developed enough to understand that such images are human creations and fiction. Such videos that scare children can trigger suicidal or homicidal feelings in a child.

Music videos show explicit motion pictures that promote sex in the society. It is clear that such pictures would be of much interest to children who have not yet tried to indulge in sex itself. They act as the base upon which they learn how sex takes place. The sexual consciousness of a child may be aroused through such videos. Children can then try among themselves what they observed happen. In the process of trying, careless adults may become attracted to such minors. This opens to the child many challenges in life including sexually transmitted infections or even AIDS. Such sexual experiences are hard for children to contain and control, making them much vulnerable to rapists and child sex (Aubrey Jennifer).

In conclusion, music videos have highly affected the structure of our society due to the effectiveness audio visual media. The power of such media has numerous advantages that have benefited the society, but this does not happen without a variety of back draws. Through the same visual technology, our society has degraded to a point of snatching children’s mind; children cannot live any more without videos. Media has become much accessible to children and teens through internet. It is however the responsibility of the guardian to create conducive environment for the child to grow. This can be achieved through use of internet filter tools to lockout inappropriate media from streaming. The parent can also subscribe for family programs that have their content checked for general audience. It might be hard or the parent to control what the child watches when alone therefore, it is also the responsibility of the parent to advise his or her children on what is appropriate and what is not.

Work cited

Aubrey Jennifer. The impact of sexually objectifying media exposure on negative body motions

and sexual self perceptions investigating the mediating role of body self consciousness 2007. May 3, 2010 Kathy Dix & John Harris. Violence in Music May 3, 2010

Media Awareness Network. Inappropriate content in music – negative effects May 3, 2010

Mhhe.com Does media violence promote violent behavior in young people? July 2001. May 3,

2010 http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/english/allwrite3/seyler/ssite/seyler/ se04/promote.pdf>

Murray Jeannette. The Negative Effect of Music Videos, July 29, 2006. May 3, 2010

< http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/46192/the_negative_effect_ of_music_videos.html>