DRAFT
Teenagers
nowadays seem to be lack of discipline and are very rude. Almost every day,
newspapers post about problems that occurred because of indisciplined
teenagers. It is believed that this happened because teenagers have been
exposed to the mass media at a young age. Also, they are being spoiled by the
way their parents bring them up. Apart from that, they are influenced by the
use of technology. However, there are efforts that can be taken to solve these
problems. Education director-general, Datuk Alimuddin bin Mohd Dom states
"Disciplinary problems among students could be overcome…” (Foo, 2008).
Based on the problems, there are a few efforts that can be taken, which are that
the government should interfere and supervise the mass media, parents should
spend more time with their children, and children should be limited in using
the technology.
Teenagers
are exposed to the mass media at such a young age. Mass media plays an
important role in developing a child’s behavior. Psychologist has been
concerned about the potential of mass media as a central role to shape
attitudes and influences the behavior of adolescents (Anderson and Bushman,
2002). KidsHealth website states teenagers who spend more time watching
television are at risk to impersonate what they had seen in the show. According
to Davis (2010), teenagers easily imitate what they watch on television. Worst,
television shows show lot of improper behaviors for kids to watch. This can be
prevented by the authorities such as the government. The government should
interfere and supervise the mass media. They have the power to interfere under
the act provided by the law. More than that, the mass media should follow the
guidelines that are granted by the government so that no appalling influences
are spread to the children. Media agencies that do not follow the guidelines
should be banned from taking part in the business.
Another
reason is teenagers are being spoiled by the way their parents bring them up. Dr
Steinberg mentioned in his book, The Ten
Basic Principles of Good Parenting, that replacing love with things like
leniency, lowered expectations, or material possessions could spoil the child. Moreover,
parents nowadays are concerned more of the success of their careers instead of
children’s welfare (Qabazard, 2010). Qabazard (2010) also states that problems
arise when parents fail to teach children the correct way of behaving towards
adults. Once the children feel superior to adults, they become rude and have no
manners towards them. Besides, teenagers that behave like this commonly come
from broken families. They already face enough problems inside the house and so
they try to rebel via another channel such as being indisciplined. In this
case, parents should play their role. They should spend more valuable time with
their children. Parents must know how to balance their time with families and
careers so that the children get enough attention from them. As teenagers, they
tend to try everything they newly know. This is the moment when parents should advise
and give them some direction about what bad or good some things are. In
addition, some parents should get advice from counselors so that they know how
to handle family problems without taking down the children with the problems.
Teenagers
are influenced by the use of social networking technology. This is also a
reason why they become indisciplined. According to Goessl (2010), the
availability of internet for 24 hours a day exposes teenagers to the
negativity. Teenagers learn from what they find in the internet and used it in
the real world. As an example, they had learned inappropriate language via
internet. Student counselor, Marian Arumugam said, “Kids are constantly coming
up with ‘colourful’ words these days. They are exposed to the internet...”
(Vijandren, 2009). Furthermore, Goessl (2010) also states technology prevents
teenagers from socializing with others in proper manners. Internet, television,
consol games and hand phones attract teenagers from being outside playing with
friends. Again, Goessl (2010) states teenagers tend to occupy themselves with
technical devices, and at some point, it indirectly gives bad effects to their
social life. Also, social networking is highly used by teenagers to communicate
with their friends, and the fact is friends are the best agent to influence
them to either do good or bad things. At this point, parents once again should
play their role. The use of social networking should be limited for children.
Parents, schools and society must work together to control teenagers from
overusing the internet and technology. Parents must set a maximum duration of
using the internet and gadgets so that children have quality time to socialize
in a healthy way. Also, parents must be educated with the latest technology, so
that they can outsmart their children in order to control them from misusing
the technology.
In
conclusion, the mass media, parents, and technology give a huge effect to
teenagers on their behaviors. Everyone should play their role to control this
problem as teenagers are the backbone of our country. The government should use
their power, parents should correct the way they bring the children up and have
full control toward their children. Datuk Alimuddin stressed “…everyone,
especially parents, played their roles and not merely left it to the schools to
handle the problem” (Foo, 2008). Then, there are no reasons why we should be
afraid to let this country be run by them in the future.
