Feb 10
27
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Cynicism learned from years of being exposed to marketing hype and products that never deliver the promised goods often carried over to other aspects of life. Jaded young children become the young people whose mantra is “whatever.” Thats what jean kilbourne says and she backs it up with
Support reason 1; A study of children done by researchers at Columbia University in 1975 found that heavy viewing of advertising led to cynicism, not only about advertising, but about life in general. (Kilbourne)
– evidence/examples: 1 The researchers found that “in most cultures, adolescents have to deal with social hypocrisy and even with institutionalized lying. But today TV advertising is stimulating preadolescent children to think about socially accepted hypocrisy. They may be too young to cope with such thoughts. They concluded that “7- to 10-year-olds are strained by the very existence of advertising directed to the.” (Kilbourne)
• Supporting reason 2: These jaded children become the young people whose mantra is “whatever,” who admire people like David Letterman (who has made a career out of taking nothing seriously), whose response to almost every experience is “been there, done that,” “duh,” and “do ya think?” (Kilbourne)
– evidence/examples 2: These children may bee too young to cope with such thoughts without permanently distorting their views of morality, society, and business.
Anyone disagree?
I don’t think children are any more or less cynical than they used to be.
Peer pressure has always existed, and tv has been around for quite some time. But you are right that kids are hit with more commercial advertising than ever before.
The American Psychological Association has devoted a good deal of energy studying the effects of advertising on children, especially re: the sexualisation of girls and women. We had Barbie, but NOTHING like the sexually charged garbage flung at girls and young women in this day and age.
*skizzell, you’re 13. That’s hardly a ‘lifetime’ of anything. You have plenty of time to get cynical as you get older, why the rush? What is so horrible?
