Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] Children & Advertising LONG
Cleopatra Rojas
Hi guys, Jacli here :)
Okay, get ready, outspoken comments to follow.
I've been following this video/deschooling/media thread
with some interest.
The question was asked do we simply allow our children to
be fed
advertising. This is a fairly important question in our
house, for a few
reasons:
1) as devoted parents we are naturally concerned about the
possible mind-washing commercials & ads can have
2) Both my daughter and I are actresses.
3) My husband is a computer program designer and I program
games
as a hubby.
Where is the line? When have we stepped over from
responsible to
dictator? I believe that someone else mentioned that they
do
not want to dictate to their kids how and when and what to
watch.
Hmm. Personally I have to agree with Sandra and disagree
with the notion that all video games are harmful or evil.
That said I also disagree with letting
kids be exposed to all sorts of advertising AND I disagree
with allowing them
to pick and choose what they watch.
The fact is that my daughter enjoyed a huge amount of motor
skill improvement directly because of video games. They
require a certain
amount of eye hand co-ordination that simply can't be
attained by
the normal activities of childhood. Her neurologist was
the one who
suggested I let her play the super nintendo. It was one of
the few suggestions
from that woman that worked.
It improved her ability to concentrate and pay attention
and follow directions as well.
She was four at the time and obviously I wasn't letting her
play street fighter.
There are literally thousands of video games available. If
you are seriously considering allowing your child to play
them You have to be willing to invest a little time and
check them all out. That's what I did. I called Nintendo
and they were very cooperative. At the time they had only
Nintendo and Super Nintendo. SNES was still new and they
ONLY had 400 titles available. So they sent me a detailed
listing and description booklet. It lists every single
title, full description for each game as well as age
recommendations. It is free and they still do this. Just
call and ask. So we got her Thomas the tank engine and
stuff like that.
Now she is twelve years old and enjoys a whole slew of
other games, at my discretion for the amount of time I
specify. I do not feel it has had any adverse
effect. Are there times when she "zones out" and fails to
hear or react to anything at all? Sure. But guess what?
The same thing happens when she reads Harry Potter or The
Hobbit. I don't get too upset then so I don't get too
upset when it happens during Legend of Zelda.
As for advertising, both she and I are actresses and
commercials are our bread and butter (but so is voice over
reading for books btw). But that doesn't stop me from not
allowing her to watch the commercials. It has been a rule
in our house from the beginning. She is not allowed to
watch commercials. For the most part whenever possible we
actually tape whatever she is going to watch and edit out
the ads.
Either way there are still times when commercials come on
and she catches one or two. If its a funny one we laugh
over it. If it is a toy ad there are times when she buys
into it. But I just remind her of the reality of tv.
Commercials are made to sell. Period. Propaganda at its
capitalistic best. These ads demonstrate the way our
economy works. She understands that, but not only because
we took the time to explain it to her. She has done
commercials and box covers for Hasbro toys. For example
There is a certain toy that is designed to be made into
different things, space ships or crowns or little toy
villages or whatever. When she first got called in to do
the new commercial and new line of boxes she was so excited
she was gonna get to play with this stuff en masse (it is
very expensive and she has only a limited supply at home)
and learn how to make all the cool stuff on the boxes. But
the reality was that the first thing they did was to
explain that there would be no playing. It took two adult
professional designers to make those creations. Two adults
with nails, glue guns, wiring and invis-thread. By the end
of her first day she saw the truth for herself.
I guess what I'm saying is that I believe it is healthy to
allow kids a limited amount of exposure to the
commercial/media process, just don't let them bathe in it.
Well, that's my uninvited 2 cents worth. Hope it helps.
Take care, Jacli :)
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
In a message dated 11/10/01 9:24:27 AM, fuerst@...
writes:
<<adverstisements as possible. Do we simply allow our
children to be fed
<<this stuff? >>
<My kid aren't deciding what they want to do based on its
advertising. Some
<toys are played with one day, even though the advertising
was great! Mine
<still play original nintendo even though it hasn't been
marketted for ten
<years or so. Who told them to do that? They did it
because it was fun. And
<they did it even though they have flashier, newer "cooler"
stuff in the house.>
<I wonder what brain wave state dancers and jocks are in?
It's not possible
<to check them with today's equipment, because they're
moving during that
<activity, and this culture with it's work ethic values
movement over being
<still.
<Sandra>
Okay, get ready, outspoken comments to follow.
I've been following this video/deschooling/media thread
with some interest.
The question was asked do we simply allow our children to
be fed
advertising. This is a fairly important question in our
house, for a few
reasons:
1) as devoted parents we are naturally concerned about the
possible mind-washing commercials & ads can have
2) Both my daughter and I are actresses.
3) My husband is a computer program designer and I program
games
as a hubby.
Where is the line? When have we stepped over from
responsible to
dictator? I believe that someone else mentioned that they
do
not want to dictate to their kids how and when and what to
watch.
Hmm. Personally I have to agree with Sandra and disagree
with the notion that all video games are harmful or evil.
That said I also disagree with letting
kids be exposed to all sorts of advertising AND I disagree
with allowing them
to pick and choose what they watch.
The fact is that my daughter enjoyed a huge amount of motor
skill improvement directly because of video games. They
require a certain
amount of eye hand co-ordination that simply can't be
attained by
the normal activities of childhood. Her neurologist was
the one who
suggested I let her play the super nintendo. It was one of
the few suggestions
from that woman that worked.
It improved her ability to concentrate and pay attention
and follow directions as well.
She was four at the time and obviously I wasn't letting her
play street fighter.
There are literally thousands of video games available. If
you are seriously considering allowing your child to play
them You have to be willing to invest a little time and
check them all out. That's what I did. I called Nintendo
and they were very cooperative. At the time they had only
Nintendo and Super Nintendo. SNES was still new and they
ONLY had 400 titles available. So they sent me a detailed
listing and description booklet. It lists every single
title, full description for each game as well as age
recommendations. It is free and they still do this. Just
call and ask. So we got her Thomas the tank engine and
stuff like that.
Now she is twelve years old and enjoys a whole slew of
other games, at my discretion for the amount of time I
specify. I do not feel it has had any adverse
effect. Are there times when she "zones out" and fails to
hear or react to anything at all? Sure. But guess what?
The same thing happens when she reads Harry Potter or The
Hobbit. I don't get too upset then so I don't get too
upset when it happens during Legend of Zelda.
As for advertising, both she and I are actresses and
commercials are our bread and butter (but so is voice over
reading for books btw). But that doesn't stop me from not
allowing her to watch the commercials. It has been a rule
in our house from the beginning. She is not allowed to
watch commercials. For the most part whenever possible we
actually tape whatever she is going to watch and edit out
the ads.
Either way there are still times when commercials come on
and she catches one or two. If its a funny one we laugh
over it. If it is a toy ad there are times when she buys
into it. But I just remind her of the reality of tv.
Commercials are made to sell. Period. Propaganda at its
capitalistic best. These ads demonstrate the way our
economy works. She understands that, but not only because
we took the time to explain it to her. She has done
commercials and box covers for Hasbro toys. For example
There is a certain toy that is designed to be made into
different things, space ships or crowns or little toy
villages or whatever. When she first got called in to do
the new commercial and new line of boxes she was so excited
she was gonna get to play with this stuff en masse (it is
very expensive and she has only a limited supply at home)
and learn how to make all the cool stuff on the boxes. But
the reality was that the first thing they did was to
explain that there would be no playing. It took two adult
professional designers to make those creations. Two adults
with nails, glue guns, wiring and invis-thread. By the end
of her first day she saw the truth for herself.
I guess what I'm saying is that I believe it is healthy to
allow kids a limited amount of exposure to the
commercial/media process, just don't let them bathe in it.
Well, that's my uninvited 2 cents worth. Hope it helps.
Take care, Jacli :)
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
In a message dated 11/10/01 9:24:27 AM, fuerst@...
writes:
>>The media producers and advertisers are majorlyfront of their
>>invested in us/our children spending as much time in
<<adverstisements as possible. Do we simply allow our
children to be fed
<<this stuff? >>
<My kid aren't deciding what they want to do based on its
advertising. Some
<toys are played with one day, even though the advertising
was great! Mine
<still play original nintendo even though it hasn't been
marketted for ten
<years or so. Who told them to do that? They did it
because it was fun. And
<they did it even though they have flashier, newer "cooler"
stuff in the house.>
<I wonder what brain wave state dancers and jocks are in?
It's not possible
<to check them with today's equipment, because they're
moving during that
<activity, and this culture with it's work ethic values
movement over being
<still.
<Sandra>
[email protected]
<< By the end
of her first day she saw the truth for herself. >>
My kids have figured out advertising too. Sometimes from saving their money
to buy something they ended up not liking.
We've always discussed what's being sold and how (often without being
clinical about it, sometimes obliquely or sarcastically, like "Oooh! If I
buy those genes I'll be 18 and have those guys around me!!") They were
really very young when they applied critical thinking to the message on TV.
The loving families, the beautiful scenery, the extra-nice houses. They
know.
There is lots of input from parodies in their lives too. They've heard Weird
Al since they were little and he skewers TV constantly (and has also watched
it a lot, or he couldn't make such elegant humor of it).
I'd rather help them see it clearly and then ignore it than try to hide it
from them or them from it.
When I was a kid and had friends and relatives whose parents did NOT want
their children exposed to sex education or evolution, I saw that those kids
thought about sex and evolution WAY more than I did, because their lives were
based, in part, on sex and evolution (avoidance thereof), and no doubt when
they were old enough they snuck out and read Darwin (which I certainly never
read).
We don't have cable. Not that cable saves you from advertising as it once
promised it would do, but we have broadcast. And it's free for the price of
plugging in a free-from-friends TV. The cost of it is enduring (or ignoring)
the commercials put there by the people who provided it for us free.
We have a close friend who works at an ad agency. She's brought magazines
for the kids, and brought a video they used at a conference, and she's talked
to them about how things unfold, who pays for what. Two of their current
accounts are with state tourism and the highway commission. Tourism gets all
dreamy sun-shots and mushy music. Highway safety gets seatbelt scares.
They're selling behavioral changes! (Although most of the state tourism
stuff is shown in other states, hoping to lure tourists here.)
Sandra
Sandra
"Everything counts."
http://expage.com/SandraDoddArticles
http://expage.com/SandraDodd
of her first day she saw the truth for herself. >>
My kids have figured out advertising too. Sometimes from saving their money
to buy something they ended up not liking.
We've always discussed what's being sold and how (often without being
clinical about it, sometimes obliquely or sarcastically, like "Oooh! If I
buy those genes I'll be 18 and have those guys around me!!") They were
really very young when they applied critical thinking to the message on TV.
The loving families, the beautiful scenery, the extra-nice houses. They
know.
There is lots of input from parodies in their lives too. They've heard Weird
Al since they were little and he skewers TV constantly (and has also watched
it a lot, or he couldn't make such elegant humor of it).
I'd rather help them see it clearly and then ignore it than try to hide it
from them or them from it.
When I was a kid and had friends and relatives whose parents did NOT want
their children exposed to sex education or evolution, I saw that those kids
thought about sex and evolution WAY more than I did, because their lives were
based, in part, on sex and evolution (avoidance thereof), and no doubt when
they were old enough they snuck out and read Darwin (which I certainly never
read).
We don't have cable. Not that cable saves you from advertising as it once
promised it would do, but we have broadcast. And it's free for the price of
plugging in a free-from-friends TV. The cost of it is enduring (or ignoring)
the commercials put there by the people who provided it for us free.
We have a close friend who works at an ad agency. She's brought magazines
for the kids, and brought a video they used at a conference, and she's talked
to them about how things unfold, who pays for what. Two of their current
accounts are with state tourism and the highway commission. Tourism gets all
dreamy sun-shots and mushy music. Highway safety gets seatbelt scares.
They're selling behavioral changes! (Although most of the state tourism
stuff is shown in other states, hoping to lure tourists here.)
Sandra
Sandra
"Everything counts."
http://expage.com/SandraDoddArticles
http://expage.com/SandraDodd
[email protected]
> My kids have figured out advertising too. Sometimes from savingThat was the Hot Wheels Volcano Blow Out set at our house. Quite an eye
> their money
> to buy something they ended up not liking.
opener at six for $55.00 saved from Christmas and birthday.
> I'd rather help them see it clearly and then ignore it than try toMy son especially likes the super wonder cleaner, cleans everything, so
> hide it
> from them or them from it.
powerful and concentrated you'll never need to use any other cleaner
again. But wait, if you act now you'll get this window cleaner and floor
cleaner absolutely free!
Kids aren't stupid.
Deb L