As our society becomes more media based, we find a new trend in how people manage their time. For decades the media has been scrutinized for the negativity we see in society and especially in the developing and tender minds of our children. As the media becomes more pervasive and powerful, its impact on individuals is under research at universities across the country; here we address the issue of whether there is a relationship between the obesity epidemic and the immense impact of the media on our children. The childhood obesity epidemic falls under the structural functional paradigm, which argues that a stable society is the best possible society and any element that helps to maintain that stability must add to the functionality of society.
This is a macro-level paradigm that describes large-scale processes and large-scale social systems; it is uninterested in individual behavior. This paradigm also looks into how society as a whole works together to maintain equilibrium or lack thereof. Croteau states that more than ever advertisers are using the media to target children. Children’s advertisements have grown dramatically in recent years as corporations have found new ways to tap into parents’ wallets. The excessive ads are making children sick, causing a plethora of health and psychological problems. A study mentioned in the book states that in the 1970s children watched roughly 55 commercials a day, by the 1990s the figure had doubled to 110 a day. Children have an awareness of themselves as consumers, and they drive many forms of household consumption by nagging parents to give in or using their own allowance to purchase products. Other findings in the book agree that an epidemic in childhood obesity can be traced in part to a sedentary lifestyle coupled with a spike in the consumption of high-fat food and drinks.
More than 12 million U.S. children are obese – one out of every six children. Obese children have an increased risk of developing a range of health problems, including high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which are both risk factors for heart disease. Obesity can also cause sleep apnea, bone and joint problems, and chronic health conditions such as asthma and type 2 diabetes (The State of Childhood Obesity). This is a serious, preventable, and often neglected issue we need to put an end to. Who is to blame is still uncertain, although, researchers conclude that time spent watching television and the increasing obesity rates may be correlated. We now look into scholarly research for further analysis of this overlooked yet painful issue facing so many of our children today.
Dr. Roland Sturm states, “Many factors have been suggested as causes of the “obesity epidemic” among children – reduced physical education at school, increased homework loads, campus vending machines, television, larger portion sizes, fast-food restaurants, video games, and countless others.” Needless to say, television itself is not solely responsible for the declining health of individuals; more so, it is the time spent in front of the television that does the damage, it takes away from healthier and more productive physical and intellectual activities. An article published in Journal of Family Medicine states that environmental factors such as school policies, demographics, and parents’ work-related demands further influence eating and activity behaviors. Research also indicates that the number of hours children spend watching TV correlates with their consumption of advertised goods, including cereals, sweets, sweetened beverages, and salty snacks. While extensive television viewing and the use of other electronic media has contributed to the sedentary lifestyles, other environmental factors have reduced the opportunities for physical activity.
It would be inappropriate to blame the children in these situations when parents are responsible for protecting their children. Television may contribute directly to obesity by reducing energy expenditure through displacing physical activity or indirectly by increasing dietary intake – through snacking during viewing or changing eating patterns caused by food advertising (Sturm). This statement makes an excellent yet profound point – most would argue that television alone cannot cause obesity; there are those who would argue genetic predisposition, heredity, and other such factors not involving the environment. However, this statement does not state causality; rather, it makes a point that television does impact the conditional health of our children. A scholarly article published in the international journal of environmental research found that children are no longer interested in outdoor activities. Young people spend a lot of time in front of their computers, playing games and browsing the Internet, which does not involve physical effort; hence, there is no energy loss.
As a result, more and more often there is the problem of overweight and obese children and adolescents, which persists into adulthood (Rosiek, 2015). So far, we have discussed the impact of television on obesity; however, television is the villain in the following scenes as well. Society has in a sense, forced parents to use television as a free babysitter. Most parents do not have the time or will to put constraints on the content and amount of time their children spend in front of the television. The childhood obesity epidemic is primarily a structural functional problem. The way society is set up, parents are stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one side you want to be the sole caregiver of your children, to ensure you are in control of their eating habits, but on the other side, you have to work and be able to provide for them.
There is awareness of this overlooked problem, however there is no solution. Other negative effects have also been researched and discovered. Children watching television in sedentary attacks in more than one arena – physically, mentally, and socially. Especially for those who are introverts; watching television, usually done in solitude, replaces the time that could be spent with friends, family, and neighbors; slowly closing the doors for potentially outgoing, social, and extroverted individuals. The prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents has increased significantly in recent decades and has become a major public health problem.
Artur Mazur of Obesity and Media found that the media heavily impacts childhood obesity, children’s and adolescents’ nutritional behavior is affected not only by time spent connected to media, but also independently by the content of the programs. Several studies have found that the association between television viewing and obesity remains significant even when potential confounding variables such as socioeconomic status, familial tendency to be overweight and, critically, levels of physical activity are taken into account. One review reported that, in 18 of 22 longitudinal studies, time spent exposed to media predicted increased weight gain over time. In a 2006 exploratory study published in PEDIATRICS the average home in the sample had four television sets; nearly two thirds had a television in the child’s bedroom, and nearly half had a television set in the kitchen or dining room.
This study is an excellent example of what most American families’ current condition is, especially for working parents who don’t have much of a choice when it comes to distracting their children hence why society as a whole is responsible for this problem. This may be hard to implement for parents who are away at work, but it is crucial for a parent to be ready to take on the responsibility. If it is mandatory to work, then it is imperative to find an excellent babysitter, if not mandatory, no other priority can come before your child. The effects of the media and its negativity pose not only small immediate effects, but larger and more delayed effects in the future. Preventing obesity and other hazardous effects of the media can possibly determine the lifestyle and lifespan of your child. It is important for people to understand that the relationship between obesity and watching television do have a relationship with one another and while it is a negative one it is also a preventable one. It is also important to clarify that television not only affects children physically, but behaviorally and academically as well. Society as whole needs to reconstruct the way children’s leisure is spent, especially when parents are away at work. Television manipulates children and instills negativity in their heads. Children should learn through interaction with people and through life experience not through exposure to useless media.
