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Isalita Seixas
Mr. James Siragusa
College Writing
Persuasive Essay
12/4/19
Is Television an Effective Way to Build the Minds of Children?
The world has been undergoing through several transformations as never before, thanks
basically to the technological revolution. It invaded our homes and gradually altered many values
and customs that once existed. Television is nowadays at the center of domestic life, as a means
of entertainment and a permanent source of information for the whole family; inform adults and
children about the most different aspects of the world around us. We don’t know if this generated
positive or negative influences, but one thing is certain: children have followed this evolution and
today television appears as the responsible for changing many values and turning children into
small consumers. It is the perfect place for the spread of the dominant ideologies of our society,
including the logic of consumption. Understanding children is the first step in understanding the
new social reality. Television programs aimed at children express ways of conceiving childhood
in the contemporary world establishing dialogues with children, inviting them to participate in the
world, and from this we can understand how children are assimilating and interacting with this
absorbed content.
Children are very curious and interested in absorbing whatever they can, thus, they are
currently one of the main targets of consumer advertising and this, in a way, is good if they absorb
what should be appropriate for their age. And that’s where television comes in as a means of
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conveying inappropriate advertisements for them such as fatty foods, expensive clothes,
electronics and toys, always presented along with cartoons and many colors. Many children’s
products are always very attractive and aiming to show a proposal of life full of happiness,
presented during the breaks of children’s programs. Television and advertisement show a kind of
behavior that induces children to follow. For what I have seen, even cartoons are not what they
used to be, because they show behaviors that will be followed, such as the use of makeup for little
girls. They then implicitly induce children to consumerism as it dictates the trends of the market
and imposes what they should be buying or having access to in order to be accepted by the society
as it has become so flexible that we can see today a degrading culture that influences a child so
much to give more value to appearances. They prefer to watch TV or go to the mall instead of
having fun and playing. And the worst: they are never satisfied. The American author of two books
