By : Dr. Chitra Effendi
El Shaddai International School
Has the corruption of society’s morals attributed with easy access of depraved materials through mass media corrupted the mind of once healthy family values thus causing deterioration of our society? How can an adult even think of raping kindergarten kid? What happened to the morals of our society formed from home where foundational good values and ethics were considered of utmost importance and carried through in school? In this article, I would like to confer about the bad influences of the proliferation of the entertainment and social media that parents should know in order to protect their children and find healthy alternative activities for them.
Much of the world we live in has changed today where the evolution of technology has given easy access with the way we search for information and entertainment. The change has also given birth to different social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, and Path, with somehow undeniable negative upshots as compared with the past wherein access to technology is limited. What used to be good values and principles depicted by the entertainment and social industry are now being corrupted with sex, violence, and cursing, thus poisoning the society in general.
Parents play a vital role in informing and monitoring their young children not to watch films that promote erroneous values such as disobedience to parents and authorities, violence, and witchcraft. With the latest digital 3D animation technology, it has made the situation a lot worse by making it look so real. I have seen a little boy climbing dangerously on stair rails as seen in “Spiderman” before he was told to come down safely. When I was young, I nearly tried to follow “Mary Poppin” by imagining what if I try fly down with an umbrella. Ironically, kids were actually another person. A child was influenced by “Pokemon” that he lost focus with his studies.
I have seen cartoon shows in my younger years where good family was against the bad and obedience and respect to authorities were the main themes. Sadly, the quality of cartoon shows besmirched many of today’s children. One cartoon showed the mother being tied up on a chandelier because the children did not want to eat the healthy food that the mother gave them. This conveys the message not only to rebel against parents and authorities but also to use violence to get their away. Another cartoon that I watched was an attempt to murder a friend when a boy electrocuted his friend and laugh it off as a joke. If a little child follows this action, someone’s life would be in danger. Another show subtly promotes gay marriage as something normal but, as we know God created man and woman to marry not man and man. Games is another dangerous lifestyle as I have heard kids can get so addicted that they don’t eat and sleep and in some cases resulted to their deaths. Furthermore, many online games promote violence, with craft and lust (skimpy dresses of characters).
Watching films and playing online games are not healthy entertainments for the mind and body. According to Dr. Susan, it does not stimulate the part of the brain that uses imagination, inspiration, and intuition. It lacks the creative side to help children interact with others. It has a negative effect both physically (such as obesity) and mentally.
Music is another area that parents need to be careful of. What kids hear and see will affect their values. Unfortunately, the world nowadays has little concern for the good of society. Musical videos along with songs are imperceptibly showing sexual connotation and it is not a wonder if evil things turn around and hit the next generation of young people.
I am surprised to see that the moral value has gone down so much that what used to be a taboo now becomes normal. A generation ago, you would not hear any cursing because it would be impolite and uneducated. But, they are part of songs and movies we watch and listen to nowadays.
Hence, parents must take a firm stand how to combat the negative effects of all these bad entertainments. At the same time, parents must give alternatives such as engaging their children in sports, intellectually stimulating board games, and occasional good films such as “Vegie Tales” and discuss these values to them. Parents should also place their children in a school where good values are the core of teaching. A healthy family builds a healthy society, and a healthy society build a healthy nation!
