While the instant access to information about virtually any subject and the ability to check in on friends and family states, or even countries, away is convenient, how beneficial is this infinite web of content to the sexual development of younger generations? .
It's nearly impossible to stray far from a media flooded environment. Whether the method of communication is a television in a home or restaurant, downloadable phone applications, car radios and music in stores, or computers at work, we are surrounded by media and search tools that can lead to any genre of specific content. So when approximately 70% of our youth have televisions in their room (Uzoma, 2014), it is hard to prevent the flow of sexual media from reaching their senses. Recurring viewing of television and movies with sexual themes or aspects can lead to casual attitudes about sexual relationships, as well as unrealistic expectations and irresponsibility in sexual situations (Ward, 2002). It is vital to identify the extent of sexual content and the frequency in which it is viewed in order to gain specific insight to direct correlation between media and sexual development in adolescents. Through research on media habits of adolescents, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that participants age 8-18 watch four-and-a-half hours of TV daily (Uzoma, 2014). If you are viewing this statistic in a small scale, it does not seem to be overwhelmingly detrimental. However, the hours begin to add up at an uncomfortable rate. 30 hours per week – that is over one entire day per adolescent per week spent watching TV, which equals out to 5 days a month, totaling two months a year. Considering that we see around 5,000 ads a day, more than 90% of which contain a female in a sexual manner (Heldman, 2014), however extreme, it is with no doubt that our culture is hyper-sexualized and seeping into the everyday life of our youth.
