Entertainment and media usage has become an isolating experience in today's modern families. According to Leonard Pitts" editorial "Making Memories in the Media Age," media and entertainment play a large role in the daily lives of American children.
The fact that entertainment has become an isolating experience is true among many families in the United States. Everyday, children spend hours in their rooms alone listening to the radio, watching television, playing video games and talking to friends online through their computers. All of the hours spent isolated from reality are taking away from the quality time that should be spent with the whole family. A survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that a vast majority of kids watch television without their parents. One point of having electronic media in homes was to bring families together, but it seems that it has contributed more to parent-child division rather than parent-child bonding. .
The popularity of video game entertainment seems to be growing these past few years. Many children sit glued in front of the television playing these games for hours without taking breaks. Video games are not only taking time away from being with family, but also other things like school work. But, it is not only a problem with children. Even parents are spending a lot of their time watching television and separating themselves from their families. .
Families need to develop different habits involving how not only their children but themselves use media technology. Another reason for all the media "appliances" in common house holds is the availability. Advertisers use tactics to make people think they need a new gadget every time a new one is released. In turn, every time a family buys a new television because it's the next best thing, it's really just adding to the problem of overwhelming media consumption.
This problem of media injection in today's society is diminishing the overall family life.
