Introduction “The more social media we have, the more we think we’re connecting, yet we are really disconnecting from each other”. This quote, said by Jean René, possess a very good point. In a world where social media and technology have become major parts of our lives, we truly believe that we are becoming more connected. Social media sites have allowed us to stay in contact with our friends and families regardless of circumstances. However, the increase in technology and social media use has only proved to make us more disconnected. Face to face communication has become a thing of the past. The Parental Mediation theory has come into spotlight with the continued increase in children’s technology usage. Parental mediation theory as described
…show more content…
These studies had many similarities in how they went about their surveys and collected their information. Both studies gathered information from a children’s perspective. As parents and children have different responses based on the mediation that was enforced, where parents reported restrictive mediation more than children. The final similarity that these studies had was the age of children that they looked at, children from the age of eleven to seventeen (generally middle school kids). I will begin with talking about the first study which was based on academic performance and television …show more content…
Without the guidance from parents, television became a source of the real world for children. The study asked children in the same age range as the first study discussed, and asked questions regarding viewing time and forbidden programs. According to researchers Greenberg, Ericson and Vlahos, they found “inconsistent reporting between parents and their children” (An 395). Previous studies had been designed to collect children’s responses rather than their parents’ responses because children’s reports of parental mediation had been more reliable than parent’s reports. The results had confirmed their hypothesis “as open family communication was negatively related to children’s perceived reality and positively related to perceived negative effects of television” (An 397). This was a very important finding as parents realized that they can use an active mediation style and talk throughout television programs to inform their children of the good/bad things that actors are doing and explain what the program content really means. Television mediation was the first step in new findings in parental mediation theory, but as video games were introduced new studies had to be done to assess the mediation strategies necessary to counteract video game
These studies had many similarities in how they went about their surveys and collected their information. Both studies gathered information from a children’s perspective. As parents and children have different responses based on the mediation that was enforced, where parents reported restrictive mediation more than children. The final similarity that these studies had was the age of children that they looked at, children from the age of eleven to seventeen (generally middle school kids). I will begin with talking about the first study which was based on academic performance and television …show more content…
Without the guidance from parents, television became a source of the real world for children. The study asked children in the same age range as the first study discussed, and asked questions regarding viewing time and forbidden programs. According to researchers Greenberg, Ericson and Vlahos, they found “inconsistent reporting between parents and their children” (An 395). Previous studies had been designed to collect children’s responses rather than their parents’ responses because children’s reports of parental mediation had been more reliable than parent’s reports. The results had confirmed their hypothesis “as open family communication was negatively related to children’s perceived reality and positively related to perceived negative effects of television” (An 397). This was a very important finding as parents realized that they can use an active mediation style and talk throughout television programs to inform their children of the good/bad things that actors are doing and explain what the program content really means. Television mediation was the first step in new findings in parental mediation theory, but as video games were introduced new studies had to be done to assess the mediation strategies necessary to counteract video game