When the Media Is the Parent

In many instances, we find ample evidence that the facts are not as Donald Trump insists they are.

What can we tell about a powerful public person who makes so many startling and often preposterous statements and draws factually unsupportable conclusions?

We must accept on a certain level the strange new world in which we live: one in which young people spend more time planted in front of machines that deliver many, many ambiguous messages to them, instead of with friends and parents.

We talk a lot about the potential ill effects associated with youthful over-immersion in the media, but a storyline is emerging with an opposing viewpoint.

The dual subjects of gun control and media violence have been debated extensively and then mysteriously slipped from sight. We would do well to take a step back and review the basic facts about media violence and what professionals in the area of child medicine, psychiatry, and psychology have concluded.

An astonishing new phenomenon is now sweeping the nation: the turning of toddlers and preschoolers into consumers of media gadgets. Though many parents are major players in this social trend, there are good reasons for them to pause and contemplate what they are doing.

Young American females grow up in a kind of cultural vise. Immersion in the media is playing a crucial role in the childhood obesity epidemic. At the same time, the "ideal" body type thrown constantly before their eyes is that of the thin, almost gaunt female—an ideal hopelessly out of reach for most.

In a real sense, the zeitgeist in the early 21st century whispers to our kids to take care of themselves and ignore the community at large. We are living in changing times, an era of a poorly studied morality shift.

Modern sentiment regarding the holiday season still relies on the three virtues at the core of the ancient holiday spirit—giving, hope, and the innocent awe of the child—but moves them in troubling directions.

Why does the problem of daily gun deaths in America seeming so acceptable? Is it the centrality that violence plays in the American identity? We tend to see violence as a solution to problems. In fact many of our greatest heroes wield guns with epic precision.

The idea of thrill kill in both video games and mainstream films and TV emerges as a way to blunt the boredom.

With the recent avalanche of reporting after the death of the Australian baseball player out jogging on a residential road in Oklahoma and the arrest of one white and two black teenagers, we were quickly greeted with a media hysteria regarding an innocent white boy murdered by two blacks out of “boredom..."

Early exposure to sexually laden content and dangers—porn, predators, and propositions by prostitutes—are now common and easily accessible. Since all youths are curious about sex and yet their judgment is far from well-formed, there are reasons for deep concern on the part of both parents and the society as a whole.

Very young children immersed in pro-social and non-violent cartoons after six months are more sociable children. The kids left to watch violent cartoons manifest more often early signs of aggression.

Certain popular cartoons, like “Bugs Bunny,” “Sponge Bob,” and “Scooby Doo,” seem to have a negative effect on children age 3 to 5.

Text messaging, Facebook and email are all working to elbow aside usual human communications. Because human relations are intense, confusing, demanding and ambiguous, humans may prefer connections wherein a certain polite distance is retained.

Over the past few decades, we’ve seen the media permeate deeply into children’s lives. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation report sets the amount of media exposure for an average American child at eight hours per day, more time than with family or in school.

On Super Bowl Sunday in late January, millions of Americans gather in living rooms and family rooms, at bars and at local hangouts. They mingle, laugh and imbibe while a TV in their midst hums out the details of a football game, bifurcated by an entertainment extravaganza at half time, and punctuated by snappy commercials.

It seems fair to say that Adam Lanza was an avid gamer, one who had few friends in real life and relied on these games for connection to the outer world.

Enough material has now accrued for us to ask certain questions and offer specific conjectures about the inner life of Adam Lanza in the days and even minutes leading up to the Newtown shootings.