As technology becomes vaster and television becomes a larger component in life there is an impact on society and pop culture. American children will watch an average of three to four hours of television daily (AACAP, 2006).
The pressing issue today with concerning parents is the violent and sexual content introduced in television. According to the American Academy of child adolescent and psychiatry (AACAP) television can cause children to imitate the violence they observe because extensive viewing of this television causes great aggressiveness (2006).
It seems to be a popular belief among society that violent television can cause this aggressiveness and as a result parents are monitoring the time their children watch television. There are also devices that allow parents to block certain channels from their children in order to prevent violent or sexual content to be available.
The concept in pop culture that can help support this theory is the concept of icons. An icon can be anyone that a child is impressed by, possibly looks up to, or obsessed with. If this person is on television and plays a violent character, the child may take on these traits in order to replicate his/her icon.
This is not to say that all icons are antagonist but the hero may have to battle and fight the antagonist in order to save the day. This conflict management is being studied by today’s youth and possibly being used in the world to solve problems (AACAP, 2006).
The insight gained by applying this theory to my topic is that icons have a much larger impact on children than I was aware. Although the icon may be an object, it can also be a person
Written Analysis: Popular Beliefs, Myths, and Icons
on television that displays violent activities. As a result children are replicating these acts to be identical to their icon or idol.
Reference
AACAP. (2006). Children and tv violence. Retrieved October 7, 2011 from http://www.aacap.org/galleries/FactsForFamilies/13_children_and_tv_violence.pdf
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