Parental Guidance 2

            Too often the negative impacts of media are publicized, but what about the good impacts?  It isn’t healthy for a kid to sit and stare at a TV screen all day, every day, but there are ways media can be beneficial. 

            I grew up without cable, simply because it was too expensive, so I was a PBS kid.  I watched shows like Clifford and Dragon Tales, and no, they didn’t drive me to bring home large dogs or try to escape to dragon land.  Instead, they created a fun way to help me understand the importance of friendship and adventure. 

            Media, like in TV Tango, makes children curious and it brings life to their vivid imaginations.  When the show got too scary and the kids became violent, they turned it off and took what they’d learned from the good channel and expanded on their outdoor creation.  Like I said in my last blog, media won’t impact a child negatively if the parenting is done in the best way.  Obviously, the kid that got too violent in TV Tango had some parental weaknesses, because the other kids knew to turn away.  On the other hand, it’s important to see how the children’s imaginations were indulged after being exposed to good media.

            Not all media influence is bad.  Parents should be smart about the amount of media intake their child is getting, but censoring them could potentially only shield the good.