Born in 1936, Marie Winn grew up to become the famous author of a book series, the first of which being The Plug-In Drug: Television, Children, and the family. Winn believes that, "Television is not merely one of a number of important influences upon today's child. Through the changes it has made in family life, television emerges as the important influence in children's lives today," which I absolutely agree with. Children who watch television on a consistent basis are negatively influenced by its brainwashing powers. In 2005, South Park aired an episode where a major character, Eric Cartman, decides to create a holiday called, "Kick a Ginger Day." A "ginger kid" is a child who has both red hair and freckles. Although the creators of the show did not mean for this episode to cause any harm, it did. In 2009, Facebook groups began popping up declaring November 20th to be "Kick a Ginger Day.".
As if this isn't horrifying enough, it affected me and my family due to the fact that I have two young, beautiful cousins with curly red hair and freckles. They were both afraid to go to school because they believed they were going to get attacked. Luckily they were not physically harmed, however they were harm emotionally. They wanted to die their hair and start wearing makeup to hide their freckles because they didn't want to be any different from other children. I am not saying that all television shows influence people to act cruel and do stupid things, however, the majority of shows people watch on television are not educational, but simply for their own entertainment purposes. Winn states that "television emerges as the important influence in children's lives today." I do agree it is a major influence, but on the contrary, I do not believe it is the major influence on children's lives today. If television can lead to potential harm towards ourselves, our friends, and our family, is it really worth it?.