Children and television

artykuly po angielsku

It goes without saying that in today's world, children spend a lot of their time in front of the TV and internet, where they are constantly ed by advertisements. In their naturally childish way of thinking, children might believe that having all the bright, colorful, and fun things they see on the screen in natural; they're urged to get it because they ought to have it. This might be intensified in other environments such as school, where the child may encounter friends who may already have that dreamt of something. It then probably makes no difference to the child whether their parents have money or not or whether he or she already has enough toys; the other kids have it so why can't he or she? This type of situation can lead to social problems between the children of parents who can afford everything that appears on tv and those who can't.

One solution that comes to mind is to limit the number of tv ads aimed at children in general. Airing tv advertisements during children's programming should also be restricted. Children simply don't understand that ads are trying to get them to buy something and are not thinking about their well-being and are unable to "defend" themselves against the impact advertisements have. Maybe one could consider at aiming these tv commercials at parents instead.

But will this in reality bring about any change? Children have always wanted anything that caught their attention and nagged their parents to buy it for them. There has always been and there always will be tension between those who have money for all kinds of unneeded things and those who don't. Maybe instead of pinning the blame for our children's self-centered behavior on marketers, we should pin it on parents, who rarely say "no" just for peace and quiet's sake. If we let advertisements run our lives then that is exactly what they will do, no matter what age. Maybe it's time to take stand for ourselves.

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to nag - dokuczać, zrzędzić
to pin the blame - zrzucić winę na kogoś
to go without saying - rozumieć samo przez się
bombard - zarzucać (np. pytaniami)
to urge - zachęcać, namawiać
encounter - napotykać, spotykać
for peace and quiet's sake - dla świętego spokoju
to take a stand - zajmować stanowisko/ postawę