Unit 1 SCLY1 - Culture and Identity; Families and Households; Wealth, Poverty and Welfare
Essay
Evaluate the view that childhood is being lost in today’s society
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Unit 1 SCLY1 - Culture and Identity; Families and Households; Wealth, Poverty and Welfare
Institution
AQA
Book
Sociology
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Unit 1 SCLY1 - Culture and Identity; Families and Households; Wealth, Poverty and Welfare
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Yasmine Walters - Homework
Evaluate the view that childhood is being lost in today’s society.
Childhood is a social construction and is often viewed as a ‘Golden Age’,
an age of innocence. Different societies and different historical periods
have different ideas about what is a child and what is expected of a child.
Neil Postman attempts to explain why the dividing line between childhood
and adulthood is rapidly eroding in contemporary society, and why the
social role of the child may well disappear in modern industrial society.
One reason why childhood is disappearing according to Postman is
because of television as this blurs the distinction between childhood and
adulthood by destroying the information hierarchy. An example of a tv
programme which is having an impact on children is Hollyoaks. Hollyoaks
is a TV programme that is on every day at 6:30pm and not every child is
asleep in their own room by this time in order for their parents to watch
this alone which results in children watching this programme alongside
their parents. This is bad because the tv programme contains a lot of
adult themes such as sex, drugs, crime and alcohol which results in
children becoming more like adults due to what they see on TV. The effect
that these kind of tv shows have on children impacts them in a way in
which they view certain aspects of life and therefore has an impact on
their childhood because they are influenced by actors on TV.
Parental control is another reason why childhood is lost within society.
Every aspect of children’s lives is controlled; this prevents some activities
associated with childhood. Going out to play is one example on how
parental control is affecting it. If a child wants to go out and play and their
parent is really strict about where they go, what time they go out and who
they go out with, this can have a huge impact on a way a child socialises
and grows up. This reason is backed by the fact researchers found that
people who reported their parent had intruded on their privacy in
childhood or encouraged dependence were more likely to have low scores
in surveys of happiness and general well-being. Due to parental control,
childhood for children are being lost especially because kids are being
rushed prematurely into adulthood.
Despite the fact that Postman says that childhood is lost, the march of
progress has a completely different view that the position of children has
improved dramatically in a relatively short period of time. Child
centeredness is giving priority to the interests and needs of children.
Polices, organisations and institutions are set up specifically to support
children and their childhood for example schooling has become
compulsory and extended which allows children to be educated and have
a chance to build a good future which is one of the ways that society is
more child centred. March of progress sociologists argue that children are
now the focal point of the family, consulted on many decisions as never
before and parents invest a great deal in their children emotionally as well
as financially, and often have high aspirations for them to have a better
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