Polluting Our Culture & Its Effect On Children

Going back to my 2007 write-up entitled, “Entertainment Industry’s Ingredients”, I have written how the media (beit movies, music or TV) is polluting our popular culture and how this will surely harm our children in the long run. Today, it has expanded to the internet, and how its affected some children, and in turn how those children are affecting others (beit through bullying, peer pressure, etc.). Looking at the mental health statistics of children and young adults, I think there is growing evidence to support what I have been saying and writing about.

My argument has been along these lines… with the breakdown and rising complexity of the family, we have more single parents raising children, parents MIA, both parents having to work or some not being involved as much as they need to be. As a result, children today have more unsupervised time. If children spent that time watching re-runs of “Ozzie and Harriett” or in youth group at church, they’d be fine. Instead too many are watching TV, movies, playing video games, on the internet and listening to music. All of which are glamorizing and showering children with harmful lessons like party 24-7, drug use, talk with 4-letter words, dis-respect authority, gambling, gratuitous violence, urging them to “just do it”, have sex now, and indoctrinating them to the gay/ transgender life-style. Now add to the list how the media is promoting children on TV and the internet, screaming how the world is coming to an end due to climate change.

Instead of pushing back on these harmful lessons pushed by Hollywood, TV and the media, too many adults have just accepted it. Add in that all these things are more accessible now than ever, the effect on children is getting worse. All of the above is combining to pollute our culture and day to day lives. Our children are watching, swimming in, and naturally drinking it all up like fish swimming in a polluted ocean.

Alcohol, pot, sex, suicide, cigarettes, violence, and things like the transgender lifestyle are adult issues. Children lack the experience, emotional stability, and psychological development to navigate through all the adult issues thrown at them now-a-days. Naturally, some try or repeat what they read, hear about or see, they fumble these adult issues and it causes them harm.

This has been going on for two or three decades now, I think it has manifested itself in the rising rates of children and young adults with emotional, psychological and behavioral issues such as depression, anxiety, bullying and even suicide.

A 2016 National Survey of Children's Health (published in Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA)) indicated 16.5% of U.S. children between the ages of 6 and 17 are being treated for a mental health disorder such as depression, anxiety problems or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Children ages 12 to 17 were 65 percent more likely to have a mental health disorder than those 6 to 11.

At the state level, the prevalence of mental health disorders ranged from a low of 7.6 percent in Hawaii to a high of 27.2 percent in Maine. Other states with prevalence 20 percent or higher: Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, SOUTH CAROLINA, Utah and West Virginia.

By the way teenage and young adult suicide, suicide attempts, and thoughts of are soaring. Authors of a 2017 JAMA study said the youth suicide rate – 14.6 per 100,000 – is the highest it’s been since the government began collecting such statistics in 1960. For girls and young women, suicide rates have mostly followed a steady upward trajectory since 2000, roughly doubling between then and 2017.

Where is the leadership on this issue? Instead of chasing the all-mighty-dollar or carrying around the mantle of freedom and choice, we all need to get on the same page and say, why are we allowing this to be done to our children? Until there is a focus on our declining culture and who is responsible for it, this problem will get worse and worse, doing more harm to our children.