The Un-TV and Consuming Kids

Most Americans don't realize how engulfed they really are in consumer culture, but the truth is that nearly every average American is surrounded by media influence 24/7. The statistic that more homes in American have a television set than a telephone is mind-blowing. People care more about watching their favorite shows mindlessly for hours than communicating with other real human beings. The Un-TV activity was a great way to see how people can sit around the television for hours and become mesmerized. Watching so much television causes us to be exposed to a greater amount of advertising, product placement, and other tricks of the marketers to make us want to buy their products. The same can be said for kids watching TV, as mentioned in the video Consuming Kids. Children are much more vulnerable to advertising and fall into the trap of marketers more easily because their brains are like sponges and absorb these messages better than adults. This relates to socialization because everything the media shows and teaches us shapes who we are and influences what we believe and what we like or want. When I was in 1st grade I used to have a blue Rugrats lunch-box that I loved and refused to go to school without. I used to act out Rugrats scenes with it and it was a huge hit at my table full of my 6 year old classmates. Thinking back on this, I know that the lunch-box was no different than any other lunch-box and I too had fallen into marketers' trap by thinking I had to have the Rugrats lunch-box because it was the "best".