Role of Media in personallity development of children’s

What is personality:

The word personality is derived from a word 'persona' which means a mask or false face used by actors, but the popular view of personality stems from certain features of an individual which are more or less superficial or external. These features are speech, quality of voice, manner of dress, charm, beauty, gestures, mannerisms etc. Thus a personality may be adjudged as good or bad, strong or week, solely on the basis of one or two such features. Rauf (1997) describes personality as a dynamic organization of all the constituent traits of an individual. According to him it is a unique combination of physical, mental, social and moral traits into a well knit whole. The development of personality depends upon two factors; firstly on heredity i.e. the characters of ancestors passed to an individual; second one depends upon surrounding social environment, culture and family, attitudes, habits and interests as well

as character including the morals and spiritual ideas, standard life's values and modes of social expressions which are all integral parts of personalityMedia and Persnality: Television is one of the most prevalent media influencing kids' lives. The impact of television on children depends on many factors, like how they watch, their age and personality, whether they watch alone or with adults and whether their parents talk with them about what they see on T.V. Personality development by television can help children develop skills and knowledge that will help them in school. The best example is "Sesame Street" which helps in developing skills of knowledge of numbers, letters relationship and vocabulary among children. On the other hand, television has also some side effects, it affects the learning and school performance if it cuts into time kids need for activities crucial to healthy mental and physical development. The impact of television violence on children

is of special concern. Young children are exposed to violence not only on crime shows, but also in cartoons, and in news. Some of most the violent T.V. shows are children's cartoons in which violence is portrayed as humorous and realistic consequences shows. This can be especially true of violence shown by young children, who are likely to exhibit aggressive behavior after viewing violent T.V. shows or movies. That is why, Rauf (1997) has strongly opposed the exposure of children to too highly exciting movies for their emotional health. Media have also played a part in the moral development of youth. Most cultures have used visual arts, dramas and stories to communicate myths, ideas and values to the new generation. Some of those visual arts and stories might be considered immoral. The media in all forms have become a primary influencing instrument on the moral development of individuals including children.

Methodology :

The present project was designed to study the impact of electronic media on the personality development of children. For this purpose Faisalabad city was selected as universe and through simple random technique two areas i.e. Madina Town and Abdullahpur were selected by systematic sampling technique. By using this statistical technique 60 respondents were randomly selected from each area and thus totaling to 120 respondents. The data collected with the help of personal interviews were analyzed to draw conclusions and formulate suggestions.The objectives:

Trying a brief overview of the theoretical foundations presented in this article, it can be seen that the mediaoccupies a very important position within the focus of a person's free time. Although performs many functions(communication, information, education etc.), the media is used, predominantly, for entertainment, is considered one of the most important ways of leisure. Furthermore, the

media contributes to the development of personality andsocial capacity of individuals, the greatest impact being upon persons of school age.The results:

The obtained results can be present and analyze in following way:

A first aspect noted in the research concerns how children’s spend their free time. Looking atFigure , we can see that most of the respondents (38%) prefer computer games, while 22% of them choose to watch different

TV programs. These results conduct to idea that most of the investigated childrens (60%) prefer those activities that send them in a virtual world that can offer easy rewarding, just pushing a button or visiting a webpage. Only 14% of children’s admit that use their free time out to play with other friends, 8% prefer to walk, while 7% want to read a book. This indicates that the specific activities of the real world is no longer a priority for children’s today, everyday’s problems are considered too difficult for trying to solve them, they are replaced with virtualsatisfaction, easier and immediate.

From the results obtained in previous items, revealed that TV viewing is central to the concerns of children’s free time. Figure 2 indicates that the most watched TV programs by pupils from children’s include cartoons (34%) and action movies (24%), while that for TV documentaries opted not any respondent. The results are notsurprising, being predictable and appropriate options for children’s age period. It now becomes important to increase the quality of cartoons and movies, as the age at which children’s are accumulating a lot of information and take easy and often uncritically, any social models. Therefore, we

recommend selecting by the adults of TV programs that provide students a positive outlook on the world and life, so that, watching them, to learn only good things.

Discussion:

The influence of television on human behaviors and attitudes is a concern for education. The overarching goal of true education is to develop critical thinking and action ability. According to Gheorghe (2008), watching TV oppose this purpose, because it diminish the individuals capacity to effective engage in their own existence, to induce passivity in planning future activities and to organize daily program. Healy (2004) states that repeated exposure to any stimulus in the environment of a child, could have an negative impact in their mental and emotional growth, either by establishing a specific circuit ("habits of mind") or by depriving the brain of other experiences . TV is in the child's life in competition with numerous real experiences and activities that stimulate their mind and body and develops character. In this sense, everything that goes beyond safety

limit, irreversibly consumes the amount of time involved in mentioned growth processes. Children will experience the best quality only if the parents control their exposure to television, carefully selecting the programs, rigorously limiting exposure at television programs. Using the computer, watching TV and the presence of media in children's bedrooms can reduce sleep duration and it quality (Paavonen, Pennonen, Roine, Valkonen & Lahikainen, 2006; Yalcin, Rul, Nacar, Tuncer & Yurdakok, 2002)They are primarily responsible for the child's experience in TV exposure. They can help their child for effective use ofTV, accompanying and talking with them about what they saw on TV. This should promote understanding between parent and child. Otherwise, excess TV exposure may affect pupils’ critical thinking and pro-social behavior, parentchild communication, but also the pleasure to spend as much time together.

Conclusions:

From the above discussion, it becomes clear that how electronic media can influence the

development of children's personality and moral characters. Therefore, it seemed necessary to explore the effect of electronic media on personality development of children. For this purpose, the present study was undertaken. From the above discussion, it is clear that electronic media play a vital role in the development of children's personality, attitudes and behaviour. But due to the danger of access of children to vulgar and violent movies, majority of respondents were in favour of negative impact of electronic media on the attitude of their children. Therefore, it is suggested that efforts be made to keep children away from all such programmes which can ruin the personalities of their children.