Kids Are Not Good Role Models

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Recommended: Youth portrayal in the media

A child has the chance to be impacted by so many people. They meet the people their parents introduce them to, they meet people over the phone, and most impactful, they meet people over the television screen. Kids see the characters of their favorite shows and instantly click. Kids can pretend to be with them, or even pretend to be them. They look up to these characters, more than they look up to real people sometimes, but are these people they are looking at actually who they should be looking up to? Parents can only do so much, but at the end of the day, kids will be impacted by the television. They are fascinated by the idea that media gives off. The kids see the money and the fame and instantly fall in love with the idea of these players. Are athletes really a good role model for kids though? Kids do not stop and think about who they are actually idolizing. If they all just stopped, they would quickly realize that athletes are not good role models for kids. Dictionary.com (2015) defines a role model as, “a person whose behavior, example, or success is or can be emulated by others, especially by younger people”. According to the website this definition can be dated back to 1955 (Dictionary.com, 2015). Now that the definition for a role model is clear, let’s look at some role models in kids’ lives. Kids …show more content…

Media shows the good and the bad in athlete’s lives. One thing that anyone would quickly notice if they sat down and watched ESPN or Sports Center is athletes are quickly forgiven. They can do something that is just ethically wrong, and be forgiven because they are needed to play. This is teaching kids that if they are good at sports, they can break the rules and be forgiven (Egendorf, 1999, 42). This is effecting kids because in real life this is just not realistic. If they do something wrong, they will be punished. The athlete gives the kids a false sense of

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