Your Child’s Future; Is it in Your hands or Theirs? Children spend most of their time in front of a television, on a computer, tablet, iPod, playing video games, and texting on their cell phones. In the dawn of this “technology era,” people viewed this as a positive thing, and that it was benefitting their children. According to Childrennow.com, children are spending more time with the media than any other activity aside from sleeping. Now, it is apparent that technology and the media’s role models that come with it are not so great after all. Although there are some aspects of technology and the media that do have productive outcomes for a child’s development, the media effects a child’s moral and social development, health and education. Lots of parents are a contributing factor to these problems due to the fact that they are not monitoring what their children are taking in from it all. It’s no secret that the economy is not doing the best these past few years. This has led to both parents in the household, or perhaps a single parent taking on longer hours in order to support their family. In turn, the children are left “unmonitored” in the sense that they aren’t able to keep a close enough eye on their child’s exposure to certain things. America is known as the fattest nation for a reason, and that is because we are one of the most technologically advanced. Children have iPads to keep them occupied at dinner instead of a coloring book and crayons. When you are a child it is so crucial that you have proper nutrition and eating habits because that truly sticks with you for your entire life. If you are raised in an obese family there’s a pretty good chance that you will grow up to become obese. For instance, the popular television show, Honey BooBoo, portrays a family with a very obese mother who just lets her children eat whatever they choose. This shows young children who enjoy watching this show, that it is okay to be obese when it is in fact life threatening. Not only is the show teaching them that unhealthy eating habits are okay. The time that children are spending watching television and on their various other tech toys is also a danger to their health. Childhood obesity is not only a danger to the child’s physical health, but to their mental health as well. In school, no matter if you are in third grade or in twelfth grade, the “fat kids” get picked on my other students because they are the way they are. Is it right of the other students to do this? No, it is not, but it happens every day and the mental consequences of it on the obese child are real. It may even lead to a future of violence for this child. Which brings me to my next point of media and violence. From birth, a child is constantly learning. Most of their basic skills are inherent such as breathing, laughing, crying, and so on. With that being said, there are many qualities that a child must learn. For instance, right from wrong is a quality that a child must be taught. Parents are constantly telling their children, “no don’t do that honey” or “good job sweetheart.” The act of reward or punishment teaches a child what he or she can and cannot do. The unfortunate fact is that television and popular video games skew what a child’s understanding of right and wrong is. Growing up I was not allowed to watch popular cartoons like Family Guy because of the content. When I was younger I always heard my cousins talking about it and would get so frustrated when my mom would yell at my sister and I when we would try to sneak watching it. I always said, “but it’s a cartoon mom, cartoons are for kids”, and she would always tell me that it was a nasty show. Now that I am older I understand why she never let me watch it. On the other hand, I will go over to my aunts when their grandma is there and the kids are watching that show. I question whether they are allowed to watch it and they respond with the fact that they do not know because their mom and dad have