Yoga Parent: How Much Should We Ride a Media Wave with Our Kids?

We cannot trust the Media to handle our family with care, yet we do. The digital revolution has made its niche in family life: online games, movies, etc. Like most parents, I utilize television to support my agenda: environmental awareness, educational enthusiasm, positive relationship modeling, etc. Allowing the media to stamp my kids with digital desires, I am not completely disappointed. I see influences of TV and gaming to be positive to a point.


Every day, my kids and I touch the soil in our backyard garden, and we experience nature in a variety of ways. As long as they show a large appreciation for nature, I feel the kids are balanced.

Now, I am considering using digital media to put them to work...?

A digital game is designed for adult gamers, as a To Do List with benefits, http://www.epicwinapp.com/. Epic Win can keep a gaming junkie from loosing touch with reality. I see the digitized brain of my 6 year old as a gamer-in-the-making. So, would this game bridge media with reality for my kids as well as adults? I envision kids using this game: performing chores, earning money (as allowance) and buying their own toys. Am I playing with fire by giving the media's influence an inch more? Am I teaching my kids how to adapt, or am I losing them to our media driven society?

Do you think utilizing digital games to motivate kids will tip balanced scales?

Locally, parents are investigating media's influence upon kids and media's intentions. This event, listed below, appears to be a great way to find out more.



CVUUF Community Forum
presents
Consuming Kids
Saturday, September 11th, 2010 7:30pm
Consuming Kids throws desperately needed light on the practices of a relentless multi-billion dollar marketing machine that now sells kids and their parents everything from junk food and violent video games to bogus educational products and the family car. Drawing on the insights of health care professionals, children's advocates, and industry insiders, the film focuses on the explosive growth of child marketing in the wake of deregulation, showing how youth marketers have used the latest advances in psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to transform American children into one of the most powerful and profitable consumer demographics in the world. Consuming Kids pushes back against the wholesale commercialization of childhood, raising urgent questions about the ethics of children's marketing and its impact on the health and well-being of kids.
Movie program will be held at: Conejo Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 3327 Old Conejo Road, Newbury Park
FREE (Donations gratefully accepted)

No comments: