The Media’s Influence on Young Adults

Media plays an essential role in the contemporary society in bringing information to the mass. In analyzing its role, various stakeholders have highlighted the influencing role of media on various categories of people, especially the young adults or the youth. Media in this case, refers to various channels through which information reach the mass. They include television, radio, and the print media. Media further includes electronic media that involves the use of computers with Internet connection. This means that mass media is everywhere and thus its influence on the public cannot be denied.

Because the influence of the media on the mass cannot be denied, the youth adult are the most influenced. This is because the young adult represents the majority of the population and most of them have leisure time to spare for media. Media’s most focus is to advertise to enhance business popularity through advertisements. Advertisements on the other hand, are made possible through the use of various images and personalities. The use of images in advertisements is the major source of influence to the youth. The youth mirror themselves through the image in the mass media adverts because the youth are conscious of their image. Eventually, the influence of the mass media images captures the attention of the youth who then begin to behave according to what they hear or see.

The media has influenced the minds of young girls to believe that they should be skinny models. This has affected their body image such that if they do not appear as they see in magazines they become frustrated. They even feel that they are unacceptable in the society and this makes them become very conscious about their weight. As a result they stick to strict diets as well as eating disorders which are on the rise today. Boys are not left out by the media influence. They see well-built men in television shows and in magazines and this makes them obsessed with their body. Many of them have ended up with obsessive weight resulting from use of dietary supplements and anabolic steroids. They apply all efforts to built bugger muscles and to get stamina for lifting.

The media has also eroded societal morals and the most affected are the young people. In the issue of sex for instance, the media has made it look normal and popular. The young people have therefore engaged in sexual relations at very tender ages causing unwanted pregnancies then abortion. They are also open to talk about sexual health and sexuality and the way they behave with their girlfriends and boyfriends is depends on what they hear or watch.

In the issue of violence, the media has made it appear as a normal activity and the young people has embraced just like that. What they do not understand is that what they watch is a written script that is acted but not real. That is why aggressive behavior is rampant today amidst the young people in the society. The movies and shows they watch have also victimized they with fear of violence. They have been made to believe that violent is a way of solving conflicts and they therefore engage in it in case of any conflict hoping to win. Violence has become so real to

them such that they cannot differentiate fantasy and real life. This calls for an action by parents in reducing the negative influence that the media has on the young people. They can help by monitoring and limiting programs that are watched by children. They should also teach children about self worth, self esteem, their inner beauty and alternatives to violence. This is because a close intervention by a parent or by any adult reduces the rate of influence to children. Studies have shown that in the contemporary society children watch Television shows for four hours in a day. Considering that this is double to the recommended time, this becomes the major cause of the increased influence to the young people. Given that the four hours spent in watching are not inclusive of the time they use in interacting with other media sites such as the Internet, this shows why the young people are been influenced drastically. Cases of childhood obesity are also on this rise in the society today because of much watching with little or no physical activity.

Parents and the adults in the contemporary society may argue that it is almost impossible to protect children from direct exposure to the media. However, with the understanding of the potential effects that the media has on the young people on the negative side, precautions can be put in place. The negative effects should therefore be counteracted and the young people be equipped with the relevant and necessary tools to effectively and accurately process the influences of the media. It should be noted that young people require a lot of information as they grow. Failure to provide it as a parent will trigger the youths to search for it elsewhere and this is how they become negatively influenced by the media.