Another Lost Generation
Many of the youth in our society today are facing increasing obstacles to leading healthy, fulfilling and happy lives. Many of these difficulties, such as obesity, over-sexualization and eating disorders, seem to stem from our culture of overconsumption and material focus. Children learn from surroundings and naturally adopt attitudes and habits that they see around them. However, today children’s absorption into the consumer society has greatly accelerated and their involvement in it has deepened.
Children have not naturally evolved in this direction; they have been pushed here by advertisers and their clients. A young undeveloped brain is no match for teams of fully developed advertisers equipped with studies of children’s psychology. Even with the help of parents, children cannot escape the consumer and brand messages directed at them, which have completely permeated our society. The effects of children’s susceptibility to advertisement can clearly be seen with their rising obsession with material objects and brands. This ‘success’ of the advertising industry has negatively affected children’s emotional and social wellbeing, and will continue to affect them in the future.
Children’s lack of judgment makes them very susceptible to marketing, which advertisers very much know and exploit. The fact that advertising appeals to emotions over intellect makes children much more vulnerable to the persuasions of the advertising industry (Linn 2). So children will watch an advertisement and immediately desire the advertised product without being able to discern why they want it and if they need it. According to Susan Linn in her book Consuming Kids: “Until the age of about eight, children can’t really understand the concept of persuasive intent—that every aspect of an ad is selected to make a product appealing and to convince people to buy it.” Young children are also often oblivious that advertisers are trying to manipulate their wants, although they feel the resulting desire,
This desire for material objects stems, in part, from advertisement impressing upon children, a notion that they are defined by the items that they own, in fact a suryey of parents by the Center for a New American Dream reports that 63% of parents think that their children define their self-worth based on material items that they own (Linn 8). According to Juliet Shor, “By three or three and a half, experts say, children start to believe that brands communicate their personal qualities, for example, that they’re cool, or strong or smart (Shor 19).” Advertising has altered core values in our society such happiness and measurement of self-worth (Linn 8). This phenomenon is evident in children’s perception of their worth becoming closely tied if not entirely dependent on material goods. This is dangerous because it means that children cannot feel self-confident without spending money. It creates a sad situation where children who struggle with poverty are also less popular among their peers because they can’t afford to buy brand name or unneeded items. They may become insecure from this lack of material goods, leading to self-consciousness. This is unfair for the child and also for the parents, who are nagged by their child for products beyond their economic reach. Although it may seem that as poor children suffer emotionally from materialism wealthier children would benefit, the truth is that they are hardly better off. They will quickly learn that people only compliment or admire them for their possessions instead of their characteristics or accomplishments, which may lead to low self-esteem. Thus, children across the economic spectrum all suffer emotionally from advertising’s forceful emphasis on material goods.
Advertising has created a cycle of dependence on consumer products that children are getting sucked into. Children want material items in order to fit in, look cool, be popular, etc. If they cannot obtain the item in question their confidence drops because now they feel uncool or unpopular which leads them to desire more items to cure their new low self-esteem. On the other hand if they do get the item they feel satisfied for a while before deeper feelings of low confidence set in, due to the fact that they have not actually done anything to earn more respect and admiration from their peers; so they also turn to the material world to fill the void. In a sense, children, regardless of economic class, are often caught in an emotional trap of consumption created by the advertising industry. This trap is especially disheartening because as their self-confidence is tied to it, it becomes very difficult for them to attain a true sense of happiness and fulfillment.
The material-oriented life that advertising perpetuates also negatively affects children by distracting them away more constructive activities with material objects. I, myself, have seen this phenomenon in the 11-year-old boy that I tutor through a program for ‘at-risk’ youth. It is hard to get him to concentrate on doing his work because he seems to always be talking about the shoes, iPods, cars, video games and cell phones that he wants to buy. When we are done with our work and have free time, he just wants to go on the class computer and print out pictures of shoes and skateboards that he cannot afford instead of playing outside or doing a board game with me. It is very sad that he spends so much time thinking about and desiring material objects that he cannot have, which can only cause him pain. What’s worse is that he is also wasting time that could be used to do something more active, creative or social, which would be beneficial to his emotional wellbeing.
Most of us remember childhood as a time that was primarily active, creative and social; according to Juliet Shor in Born to Buy: “we made concoctions, played dress-up, built forts, and fought with our siblings. Sometimes we even watched television (Shor 29).” Unfortunately it seems that children today are having completely opposite experiences; they watch television and sit at the computer and sometimes they might even play a creative game with their siblings and friends. Children’s distraction by the advertised commercial and consumer activities has caused them to miss out on important, creative opportunities as well as a lot of natural childhood fun.
The lack of creativity and the emotional need to consume produced by advertising is likely to stick with children into adulthood. The influence of advertising on children can skew their goals to become focused on money and consumer products. This is unfortunate for the children because, as Susan Linn explains in her book Consuming Kids, “people who highly value material goods (an orientation reinforced by consumer marketing) are likely to be more unhappy and have a lower quality of life than those who value more internal or nonmaterial rewards such as creativity, competence, and contributing to the community (Linn 8).” This future that advertising is creating for children is bleak, not only for them, but for the rest of the world too. A decade ago children saw their futures in terms of professions they would like to have; now children see the future as material objects that they want to own (Linn 7). Do we want our future doctors and political leaders to be uncreative, impulsive, brand-oriented, greedy and materially focused with low self-worth and no passion or real interest in their profession? Clearly the future that advertising is creating for children will not only harm them, but will also have a large, negative effect on the country as a whole.
It is becoming extremely clear that children are suffering from the ever-present advertising industry in the United States. They are increasingly defining themselves by consumer goods, which is destroying their self-esteem and diminishing their chances at true happiness and fulfillment. The advertising industry is also distracting children away from more constructive, creative and natural activities and experiences, which would benefit them now and in the future. In fact, according to Susan Linn, children’s “physical, psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual development are all threatened when their value as consumers trumps their value as people (Linn 10).” This is leading to a future of undeveloped and materialistic citizens, which will be disastrous for everyone.
In order to prevent the manifestation of this alarming future, very strict regulations concerning advertising to children must be implemented. The advertisements during children’s shows should be drastically cut back and their should be laws to prevent advertisers playing off of children’s weaknesses to sell them things. It is also important to educate children about advertising both at home and through the schools. Just as there are programs in schools educating children about drugs, alcohol and sex, so should there be programs to inform them about the reality of the advertising industry and media. By accomplishing this we will be able to give children back the natural carefree childhood that they deserve and preserve their future possibility of having healthy, fulfilling and happy lives.