Media Effect On Family Essay

The media is what influences us in our day-to-day lives. Even when we don’t realize it, we absorb what the media tells us. Whether it be what clothes are in style, what’s “hip”, or what entertainment is most popular, the media influences our everyday life. However, how does the media represent the family? Turn on primetime Television and you see varied representations. From a nuclear Family of a husband, wife, and children to a single mother raising a child, the media covers a majority of family relationships. But regardless of the people in the family what does the media portray? Surprisingly enough the media doesn’t portray a picture perfect family without any difficulties. Television has always been a place for fantasy, for distorted reality, and with this in mind one would think that the media would portray the family life as something perfect, something so perfect that no one is able to achieve it no matter how hard one may try. Nevertheless, does the media portraying a family …show more content…
Perhaps it does for when we are exposed to a certain view it can change our outlook on life. Perhaps it doesn’t for we know that Television is not an accurate source to base our life off of. If we keep our focus on Christ, we will be able to discern the falsehoods from the truth. We can use the dysfunctional TV families as a learning situation for our own families. A study once said that reading fictional books helps us in social situations because we are able to put ourselves in many different circumstances and think of different outcomes. Perhaps the same goes for Television families. We are able to see a large variety of different situations and different families and we can think about what we would do in that situation. Therefore, while the media can negatively affect our view on families it can also be a positive learning experience depending on how we view