Sunday, October 11, 2009
How Media Affects Self Image
It seems to me like teens now a days are too focused on appearance and how other people view them. Mass media influences these ideas and brainwashes our generation into feeling the need to conform. Teenagers are trying to hard to to fit in, or have "the look." For example, the show America's Next Top Model affected one of my friends in a very unhealthy way. She told me how she always wanted to be a model. However, they care too much about your size that she was discouraged. I know this happens a lot because the media portrays to the public that one must be thin, have high fashion, and have natural beauty. This causes self consciousness, discouragement, and unhealthy habits for our and younger generations. Even younger kids are starting to transform the way they act and look in order to be like their role models on television and in the magazines. Kids are beginning to apply make-up, speak inappropriately, and dress more revealing than they have in the past. If the media did not put such a heavy influence on appearances, our world today would would be more classy and people would be happier and healthier with themselves.
Why is the Music Industry Dying?
I remember when i was in fifth grade and got my first cd player. It was the happiest day of my life, i could finally listen to the music i liked and not what the radio was playing. All I could think about is going to the Music store and buy new albums to listen to. There were so many genres and different artist, it was hard just to buy only one. That was then, now I do not remember the last time I actually bought a an album. Actually I do not remember the last time I visited a music store, do those things even still exist? Ever since the Ipod was invented, the downloading of music has sky rocketed. Everyone just logs on to their computer then access their itunes account and they get all the music they want. Instead of buying the whole album, now we can just download the first single of an artist number. This affects the number of album copies an artist sells, not to mention the money they make. Everything is so digital now, there is no more fun in going out and buying and album and getting the album cover. It is just more convenient to buy your music from where u are sitting than making a trip to your local music store. Alot of music stores have run out of business because of this evolution of buying music. This is making it easier for some artist to break in to the music indusrty, but this is not a good thing. Now the music that is put out, is anything but good. Artist of this day can make serious money buy putting a track out with a catchy chorus and have a hit. This is killing the music industry and making music is not an art anymore is just an easy way too make money.
To read alittle more about how this topic go to this link : http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/15137581/the_record_industrys_decline
To read alittle more about how this topic go to this link : http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/15137581/the_record_industrys_decline
Who are our heroes today?
It seems like today kids do not look up to their older brother and sisters or even look up to the world leaders who are changing the world. What happened to the good days when fire fighters, Doctors, and teachers were the people respected in the society. They were the people who made a difference and who even saved other peoples life. Now with the evolution of media and with it being a major part of our lives is the people who make the headlines of TMZ, Sports Center, and the person who has the number one song in the country the one who everyone idolizes and adores. Athletes are always on tv and have a great responsibilities on their shoulders, they not only have to play their sport but now because of all the exposure they have to behave and act in a proffesional manner. If not it does not only bring a bad image to them but it also affects the lives of the people watching including the kids who look up to them. Athletes are not bad role models, they are hard working people and have gone through alot to be where they are. Some don not realize the responsibility they have and abuse the money they make and set a bad image on them selves. Other athletes are not just off the court they are bad on the court. For example a situation a few years back when Indian Pacers Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson went into the stands and attacked several fans. They suspended for a few games, which was a small penalty to pay. The real sad part is the message and example they sent out to the kids who look up to them. It is also sad that they can just get away with it and just pay a small penalty. So why is it that we look up to people like this? Do we want our future generation to idolize people who break the law and who are violent?
to read more about this story visit this link : http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1927380
to read more about this story visit this link : http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1927380
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Music affecting Teens in America
Rap music has a bad influence on teenagers: bullshit or fact?
by Flip Schrameijer
Ask your grandparents how their parents reacted when they listened to jazz music when they were your age. They may tell you that the police beat the stuffing out of dear old Granddad when he attended a concert by Lionel Hampton in 1953.
(C) ANP - click for film clip
Lionel Who? Yes. But that was half a century ago!
Jazz. Yuck! That's really stuffy old music! you might say. Negro music it was called in the newspapers in those days. And that was considered very bad influence to young people.
Or, ask your parents. Maybe they will tell you about when they were beaten up by the coppers during a concert of the Rolling Stones.The Rolling Stones?! But Mick Jagger is Sir Mick now. Surely he didn't have a bad influence on my sweet Mom and Dad?
(C) ANP - click here
Where was I during the 1964 Stones concert
So, what's new? Now it's rap and hip hop. A new generation of scientists is worried that their children will start having sex at thirteen because they listened to rap music. OK, some rappers don't beat about the bush. Sex is on their minds. And it may not be the kind that your parents and teachers feel easy about.But, does listening to rap, or to pop music in general, encourage young people to do things that may be bad for them? Let's lend science an ear.
Is rap music bad for your health?
Yes, say recent American studies, and in more ways than one. A team of researchers from Berkeley, California, investigated more than a thousand American college students between 15 and 26 years of age. Students who often listen to rap music, use more alcohol, more marijuana and more party drugs such as XTC.
It’s a health-risk in another way too, since rap-enthusiasts appear more aggressive as well: they are more often in fist fights and are more likely to threaten others with a knife or a gun. And risk being hurt by the way.
And it is rap music especially, the researchers say. Rock & Roll fans appear to be less aggressive, while Reggae-lovers use more marijuana – of course – but considerably less party drugs. Techno-fans use somewhat more XTC, but overall rap comes out ‘worst’.
Three years earlier, American researchers from Atlanta, Georgia, reported a study of more than 500 black girls, age 12 to 17. They interviewed the girls three times over a period of three years. They were so selected that at the first interview all of them were virgins. Of course, many of them had kissed, ‘made out’, or had engaged in more ‘advanced’ amorous activity. A year later, 17 percent had had sexual intercourse and another two years later 36 percent. Many others who hadn’t had intercourse, had gone further in other, more advanced activities.
The researchers found that girls who had watched rap videos for more than an hour a day were the most likely to have started sex early. They had had had multiple sexual partners two times more often than the ones who watched considerably less. Also, they were one and a half times more likely to have acquired a new sexually transmitted disease, and used drugs and alcohol. The statistics are very convincing on this point. (See for both articles the sources below.)
Do you believe it?
Research like this is about you and the behaviour of other young people. And it can easily be different from your own experiences. When rap music makes you and your friends feel happy, you immediately think someone who says rap leads to alcoholism must be mad. Moreover, when none of your rap loving friends ever used drugs or behaved aggressively, you will think researchers who say these things must be dreadfully out of touch with reality.
Maybe they are a horrible gang of elderly people who have no appreciation for your favorite music. Or old people who have forgotten that at one time they themselves loved Rock & Roll, or the Rolling Stones. Maybe they had quarrels with their parents about their music but totally forgot about them.
This may be your initial response: in fact questioning the motives of the researchers. But, sorry, it’s the wrong response, because it’s unscientific. We cannot ignore the outcome of research, simply because we don’t like it or haven’t experienced it ourselves. The motives or the age of the researchers is totally irrelevant! The only thing that counts is the quality of the research itself.
Cause, effect, or something else?
Image
The big question is: do these investigations indeed prove that watching rap videos or listening to rap is the cause for early sex, drug-taking, drinking or aggression. For instance: it could well be that girls who have sex at an early age are later attracted to rap videos that present sex as something fun, or even glamorous.
This possibility could be ruled out, however, because the researchers found that watching these videos happened before the increased sexual activity. That is why the girls were interviewed over a three year period.
In the first study about drinking, drug-taking and aggression however, the students were only interviewed once. So this possibility could not be ruled out, and the researchers indeed say exactly that. In other words: it could well be that students who like drinking, drug-taking and aggressive behaviour, start listening to rap music afterwards. Listening to rap music could be the effect and not the cause.
So, one thing could be the cause of the other, or the other way around. But it could well be that something else causes the two kinds of behaviour: drinking, aggression and premature sex on the one hand and listening to rap music and watching rap videos on the other.
This ‘something else’ could be all kinds of things and is called ‘third factors’. In the case of the black girls for instance, the researchers looked at the factor ‘parental guidance’. Girls who are often alone at home or whose parents often don’t know where they are, might have more opportunity to watch rap videos and engage in sex and drinking. Statistical analysis showed however that parental guidance was not such a ‘third factor’.
Image
In the study with the students and rap music the researchers give a lot of attention to possible ‘third factors’. They included ‘sensation seeking’ (such as going to wild parties, doing scary things, doing “crazy” things just for fun) in their analysis and find this to be important.
In other words: people who like certain ‘dangerous’ behaviour and who like drinking, fighting and/or drug-taking also tend to like to listen to rap music. It might well be, the researchers say, that when ‘sensation seeking’ is taken into account fully, there is no link at all between rap music and drinking, fighting or drug-taking.
The researchers add it might be something different altogether such as the lifestyle of these young people that might explain a preference for rap music, as well as for drinking, drug-taking and/or aggressive behaviour.
The trouble with these third factors is that all possible third factors have to be identified and taken into account. At the moment there is not enough research into this subject. We cannot rule out that there are yet unknown third factors behind the relationship between rap and different kinds of unhealthy behaviour.
Bullshit or something else?
So: is it bullshit to say rap is dangerous to young people?
Frankly: we don’t know. Until today the research cannot decide what's true and what's not. We cannot say the dangers of rap have been proven, nor have they been disproved.
What do you think?
With what you know now, you can make up your own mind. Let me give you some of my ideas.
I think the so called ‘third factors’ are really important. This simply means there is a reason why people who tend to engage in any of these behaviours: drinking, drug-taking, premature and dangerous (including unprotected) sex, or any combination of them, also listen more often than others to rap music, or watch rap video clips.
We do not believe that many young people who don't show these behaviours will start doing so just because they listen to, or watch rap. Of course there will always be some for whom rap music will be the last push.
When in doubt, it often helps to turn a question upside down. So you can ask yourself why listening and watching rap would not influence one’s behaviour, if only a little. It seems unlikely that watching rap stars for several hours a day having fun with certain things would leave no effect at all.
Image
Just think of this. Hard liquor used to be totally absent in the American rap-scene ten years ago, while today it is shown in most rap-videos. Nine out of ten rap-stars have since signed contracts with the liquor industry, according to Denise Herd of the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health. Listen to this radio interview.
Obviously the liquor industry believes that rap promotes drinking, or they would not invest large sums of money in making hard liquor look cool in rap videos.
by Flip Schrameijer
Ask your grandparents how their parents reacted when they listened to jazz music when they were your age. They may tell you that the police beat the stuffing out of dear old Granddad when he attended a concert by Lionel Hampton in 1953.
(C) ANP - click for film clip
Lionel Who? Yes. But that was half a century ago!
Jazz. Yuck! That's really stuffy old music! you might say. Negro music it was called in the newspapers in those days. And that was considered very bad influence to young people.
Or, ask your parents. Maybe they will tell you about when they were beaten up by the coppers during a concert of the Rolling Stones.The Rolling Stones?! But Mick Jagger is Sir Mick now. Surely he didn't have a bad influence on my sweet Mom and Dad?
(C) ANP - click here
Where was I during the 1964 Stones concert
So, what's new? Now it's rap and hip hop. A new generation of scientists is worried that their children will start having sex at thirteen because they listened to rap music. OK, some rappers don't beat about the bush. Sex is on their minds. And it may not be the kind that your parents and teachers feel easy about.But, does listening to rap, or to pop music in general, encourage young people to do things that may be bad for them? Let's lend science an ear.
Is rap music bad for your health?
Yes, say recent American studies, and in more ways than one. A team of researchers from Berkeley, California, investigated more than a thousand American college students between 15 and 26 years of age. Students who often listen to rap music, use more alcohol, more marijuana and more party drugs such as XTC.
It’s a health-risk in another way too, since rap-enthusiasts appear more aggressive as well: they are more often in fist fights and are more likely to threaten others with a knife or a gun. And risk being hurt by the way.
And it is rap music especially, the researchers say. Rock & Roll fans appear to be less aggressive, while Reggae-lovers use more marijuana – of course – but considerably less party drugs. Techno-fans use somewhat more XTC, but overall rap comes out ‘worst’.
Three years earlier, American researchers from Atlanta, Georgia, reported a study of more than 500 black girls, age 12 to 17. They interviewed the girls three times over a period of three years. They were so selected that at the first interview all of them were virgins. Of course, many of them had kissed, ‘made out’, or had engaged in more ‘advanced’ amorous activity. A year later, 17 percent had had sexual intercourse and another two years later 36 percent. Many others who hadn’t had intercourse, had gone further in other, more advanced activities.
The researchers found that girls who had watched rap videos for more than an hour a day were the most likely to have started sex early. They had had had multiple sexual partners two times more often than the ones who watched considerably less. Also, they were one and a half times more likely to have acquired a new sexually transmitted disease, and used drugs and alcohol. The statistics are very convincing on this point. (See for both articles the sources below.)
Do you believe it?
Research like this is about you and the behaviour of other young people. And it can easily be different from your own experiences. When rap music makes you and your friends feel happy, you immediately think someone who says rap leads to alcoholism must be mad. Moreover, when none of your rap loving friends ever used drugs or behaved aggressively, you will think researchers who say these things must be dreadfully out of touch with reality.
Maybe they are a horrible gang of elderly people who have no appreciation for your favorite music. Or old people who have forgotten that at one time they themselves loved Rock & Roll, or the Rolling Stones. Maybe they had quarrels with their parents about their music but totally forgot about them.
This may be your initial response: in fact questioning the motives of the researchers. But, sorry, it’s the wrong response, because it’s unscientific. We cannot ignore the outcome of research, simply because we don’t like it or haven’t experienced it ourselves. The motives or the age of the researchers is totally irrelevant! The only thing that counts is the quality of the research itself.
Cause, effect, or something else?
Image
The big question is: do these investigations indeed prove that watching rap videos or listening to rap is the cause for early sex, drug-taking, drinking or aggression. For instance: it could well be that girls who have sex at an early age are later attracted to rap videos that present sex as something fun, or even glamorous.
This possibility could be ruled out, however, because the researchers found that watching these videos happened before the increased sexual activity. That is why the girls were interviewed over a three year period.
In the first study about drinking, drug-taking and aggression however, the students were only interviewed once. So this possibility could not be ruled out, and the researchers indeed say exactly that. In other words: it could well be that students who like drinking, drug-taking and aggressive behaviour, start listening to rap music afterwards. Listening to rap music could be the effect and not the cause.
So, one thing could be the cause of the other, or the other way around. But it could well be that something else causes the two kinds of behaviour: drinking, aggression and premature sex on the one hand and listening to rap music and watching rap videos on the other.
This ‘something else’ could be all kinds of things and is called ‘third factors’. In the case of the black girls for instance, the researchers looked at the factor ‘parental guidance’. Girls who are often alone at home or whose parents often don’t know where they are, might have more opportunity to watch rap videos and engage in sex and drinking. Statistical analysis showed however that parental guidance was not such a ‘third factor’.
Image
In the study with the students and rap music the researchers give a lot of attention to possible ‘third factors’. They included ‘sensation seeking’ (such as going to wild parties, doing scary things, doing “crazy” things just for fun) in their analysis and find this to be important.
In other words: people who like certain ‘dangerous’ behaviour and who like drinking, fighting and/or drug-taking also tend to like to listen to rap music. It might well be, the researchers say, that when ‘sensation seeking’ is taken into account fully, there is no link at all between rap music and drinking, fighting or drug-taking.
The researchers add it might be something different altogether such as the lifestyle of these young people that might explain a preference for rap music, as well as for drinking, drug-taking and/or aggressive behaviour.
The trouble with these third factors is that all possible third factors have to be identified and taken into account. At the moment there is not enough research into this subject. We cannot rule out that there are yet unknown third factors behind the relationship between rap and different kinds of unhealthy behaviour.
Bullshit or something else?
So: is it bullshit to say rap is dangerous to young people?
Frankly: we don’t know. Until today the research cannot decide what's true and what's not. We cannot say the dangers of rap have been proven, nor have they been disproved.
What do you think?
With what you know now, you can make up your own mind. Let me give you some of my ideas.
I think the so called ‘third factors’ are really important. This simply means there is a reason why people who tend to engage in any of these behaviours: drinking, drug-taking, premature and dangerous (including unprotected) sex, or any combination of them, also listen more often than others to rap music, or watch rap video clips.
We do not believe that many young people who don't show these behaviours will start doing so just because they listen to, or watch rap. Of course there will always be some for whom rap music will be the last push.
When in doubt, it often helps to turn a question upside down. So you can ask yourself why listening and watching rap would not influence one’s behaviour, if only a little. It seems unlikely that watching rap stars for several hours a day having fun with certain things would leave no effect at all.
Image
Just think of this. Hard liquor used to be totally absent in the American rap-scene ten years ago, while today it is shown in most rap-videos. Nine out of ten rap-stars have since signed contracts with the liquor industry, according to Denise Herd of the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health. Listen to this radio interview.
Obviously the liquor industry believes that rap promotes drinking, or they would not invest large sums of money in making hard liquor look cool in rap videos.
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