You come home and walk through your front door, greeting the people you live with. They ask you to go to the back of the house because there is something there, they would like you to see. They sit you down in a chair facing the back yard and as they open the blinds to your sliding glass doors, you are shocked with what you see. There is a mad man running around with a gun, shooting people. Blood pours out of their bodies as they run from him in horror. Some people have been decapitated and their heads lye on the floor next to them. Suddenly a woman bangs up against the door screaming in horror, begging for help. As you watch this, you are confused at why everyone inside your house is so calm as to what they are witnessing. You become more and more uncomfortable and ask for an explanation. They comfort you by saying, “don’t worry its ok, it’s almost over.” Just before you decide to stand up and try to do something, it all comes to a screeching halt and once again you are staring at an empty back lawn. Your family explains that you have just witnessed the latest gadget, “The Hologram DVD”. How would you feel? How did you feel while it was happening? Would you want to watch it again? If you watched it over and over would it desensitize you?
A child’s mind is not capable of separating fact from fiction. Their minds are developing and what they see is what they consider to be real, no matter how many times you tell them it’s just a movie. When we allow our children to see things on TV or in the movies that they are not cable of filtering, we desensitize them. As in the example given above, you are originally in shock, not just to what you are seeing but as to how those around you are reacting to it. It isn’t until you are told that it is not real, that you feel a little better. I would imagine that even after you are told, you would continue to be confused because its happening in your back lawn and it looks so real. For a child, TV and Movies have the same affect. When they are old enough, they will manage what they are seeing but in the mean time, they will be confused and desensitized. You’re the programmer, load their minds with the right information, and don’t create unexplained viruses that may ultimately crash the system.
A child’s mind is not capable of separating fact from fiction. Their minds are developing and what they see is what they consider to be real, no matter how many times you tell them it’s just a movie. When we allow our children to see things on TV or in the movies that they are not cable of filtering, we desensitize them. As in the example given above, you are originally in shock, not just to what you are seeing but as to how those around you are reacting to it. It isn’t until you are told that it is not real, that you feel a little better. I would imagine that even after you are told, you would continue to be confused because its happening in your back lawn and it looks so real. For a child, TV and Movies have the same affect. When they are old enough, they will manage what they are seeing but in the mean time, they will be confused and desensitized. You’re the programmer, load their minds with the right information, and don’t create unexplained viruses that may ultimately crash the system.
“The remarkable physical transformation children undergo as they grow up is matched only by the metamorphosis of their minds. Parents, of course, play a critical role in this aspect of development.”
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