By Saima Naveed
http://splus.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Perspective/01-Jul-2010/Undefined-exposure
“You don’t love me anymore,” the nine year old Abdul Rehman shouted at the top of his lungs and ran out of the room leaving her mom staring at the empty doorway. His mother was dumb struck by what she heard her nine year old boy say to her. Cradling her one year old daughter in her arms she went up to Rehman, not knowing whether to punish him for his rude behavior or leave him on his own. Disregarding both these options she laid her sleeping daughter on the bed, gathered Rehman in her arms and soothed his sobs.
An hour later, lying on her bed, Ayesha Ali could not stop thinking about Rehman’s behavior. His words were still ringing in her ears making her wonder where he learnt such things. At thirty-two, Ayesha was a successful house wife and an educated mother who knew how to handle her family and kids. But today she felt lost and confused.
This lost and confused attitude is not just the story of Ayesha Ali. It’s the story of every mother who has young children. It’s not the outcome of improper upbringing or bad company at school, as most mothers believe, it’s the outcome of the small electronic box lying in every room of the house with flashy pictures and several stations. Yes, it’s the television sets!
Television is the child’s dearest item in the whole house. It’s his partner in all the fun, his partner in killing time when bored and his partner to all the exciting things they learn, while watching TV. But there is a big disadvantage of this strong bond between the children and the television sets. TV is no longer the same as it was a decade ago. The kid’s shows and cartoons are no longer the boring slow animated funny creatures making the kids laugh. Majority of the kids shows and cartoon, today, are similar to adult programs. The only difference is that kid’s shows are animated while adult programs are not!
These programs disguised as kid’s shows are spoiling the next generation’s mind. Children imitate a lot of actions they watch the characters doing in the cartoon movies, kid’s plays and children shows. Now days it’s pretty common to see young girls, hardly 10 years old wearing makeup and styling their hair just because Hannah Montana does it or because Alex Russo, of The wizards of Waverly Place, wears her hair the same way.
Young boys picture themselves as strong as Ben 10 or as Gohan of Dragon Ball Z. Imitating such characters, kids believe that they can handle situations themselves, without the elder’s assistance. And they can do anything they want without asking permission from their parents because that’s what the characters in their favorite cartoon show do!
Even the diets of these kids have undergone a massive change. Gone are the days when children are sitting happily on the dining table waiting for the home made Chapati. You see gloomy faces of children if they are made to eat home cooked food. Fast food is the major intake of today’s children. They prefer coke and fries over juices and home-cooked food because that’s what they see their favorite characters eating.
“Mama, I want to eat a piece of chicken leg just like Tom (from Tom & Jerry Cartoons),” says Ibrahim, an 8 year old boy to his mother. This is what’s happening to the children. They tend to do everything just the way they watch in TV. They get so much influenced by the characters that they adopt all the good and bad stuff from there. Their every action, thoughts and words are influenced by what they see on TV. Their minds are stuffed with foreign culture and foreign life style. That day is not very far, when our society will be an example of western culture and practices!
http://splus.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Perspective/01-Jul-2010/Undefined-exposure
“You don’t love me anymore,” the nine year old Abdul Rehman shouted at the top of his lungs and ran out of the room leaving her mom staring at the empty doorway. His mother was dumb struck by what she heard her nine year old boy say to her. Cradling her one year old daughter in her arms she went up to Rehman, not knowing whether to punish him for his rude behavior or leave him on his own. Disregarding both these options she laid her sleeping daughter on the bed, gathered Rehman in her arms and soothed his sobs.
An hour later, lying on her bed, Ayesha Ali could not stop thinking about Rehman’s behavior. His words were still ringing in her ears making her wonder where he learnt such things. At thirty-two, Ayesha was a successful house wife and an educated mother who knew how to handle her family and kids. But today she felt lost and confused.
This lost and confused attitude is not just the story of Ayesha Ali. It’s the story of every mother who has young children. It’s not the outcome of improper upbringing or bad company at school, as most mothers believe, it’s the outcome of the small electronic box lying in every room of the house with flashy pictures and several stations. Yes, it’s the television sets!
Television is the child’s dearest item in the whole house. It’s his partner in all the fun, his partner in killing time when bored and his partner to all the exciting things they learn, while watching TV. But there is a big disadvantage of this strong bond between the children and the television sets. TV is no longer the same as it was a decade ago. The kid’s shows and cartoons are no longer the boring slow animated funny creatures making the kids laugh. Majority of the kids shows and cartoon, today, are similar to adult programs. The only difference is that kid’s shows are animated while adult programs are not!
These programs disguised as kid’s shows are spoiling the next generation’s mind. Children imitate a lot of actions they watch the characters doing in the cartoon movies, kid’s plays and children shows. Now days it’s pretty common to see young girls, hardly 10 years old wearing makeup and styling their hair just because Hannah Montana does it or because Alex Russo, of The wizards of Waverly Place, wears her hair the same way.
Young boys picture themselves as strong as Ben 10 or as Gohan of Dragon Ball Z. Imitating such characters, kids believe that they can handle situations themselves, without the elder’s assistance. And they can do anything they want without asking permission from their parents because that’s what the characters in their favorite cartoon show do!
Even the diets of these kids have undergone a massive change. Gone are the days when children are sitting happily on the dining table waiting for the home made Chapati. You see gloomy faces of children if they are made to eat home cooked food. Fast food is the major intake of today’s children. They prefer coke and fries over juices and home-cooked food because that’s what they see their favorite characters eating.
“Mama, I want to eat a piece of chicken leg just like Tom (from Tom & Jerry Cartoons),” says Ibrahim, an 8 year old boy to his mother. This is what’s happening to the children. They tend to do everything just the way they watch in TV. They get so much influenced by the characters that they adopt all the good and bad stuff from there. Their every action, thoughts and words are influenced by what they see on TV. Their minds are stuffed with foreign culture and foreign life style. That day is not very far, when our society will be an example of western culture and practices!
very nice =)
ReplyDeletewell written .
yeh i agree :)
ReplyDelete