Mass Media, MTV and Murder – Just Say No. February 12, 2009

As parents, we tend to get lazy sometimes and use the TV as a baby sitter for our kids. Plop little Johnny in front of the television set and watch him become a zombie while we tend to our chores and pretend for a while that he doesn’t exist.   Or maybe we feed him hours of banal video games as entertainment or we let him listen to the constant barrage from a radio while doing his homework. It we really thought about it, this would probably not be the kind of programming we want for our kids.

One thing we know we can count on is that the mass media is not out to educate our kids. Their job is to generate programming that will bring in advertising revenue. Period. That’s why sex, violence, and manipulative advertising fill the airwaves. Our children learn improper lessons and misguided values through TV that generally have little bearing on real life. Their life’s lessons need to come from us. We need to guide our kids by keeping them away from television and video games and getting them involved in wholesome, consciousness expanding endeavors. And if we want to help them in school we could start by helping them with their reading.

Find out what kinds of books they like and read to them. Or have them read to us. Books are available everywhere. Take them to the library, go to a used bookstore, check grandma’s attic. Anywhere it takes to find educational books that are filled with positive social messages. The more time our children spend reading, the better they get at it, and the more confidence they have in their studies. Good study habits lead to good grades.

And good grades lead to a better education, and the potential for financial freedom at the end of the road. And if little Willy needs a break from studies and begs for a videogame fix, every now and then it’s okay to give it to him. Just make sure it’s educational. Make it fun but leave the sexual and violent content for the adults. Teaching our kids the value of learning is the most important thing we can do. We should be spending quality time with our kids rather than wasting it on the bad habits we developed when we were young. Our kids deserve so much more than the mindless gratification delivered by MTV.  It’s ok to avoid the mass media, and MTV so that your mind doesn’t get murdered by the garbage out there.  Just Say No.