Pop Culture's Effect on the Maturity of Children

        The past 15 years of popular entertainment have progressively brought a shocking force for children to grow up faster. For me, this disturbing trend has been obvious to observe because I have a younger sister who is 12. In grade school, my friends and I did not have favorite television programs other than a few silly cartoons such as “Ed Edd and Eddy,” “Fairly Odd Parents,” and of course the infamous “Spongebob Squarepants.” It is quite unfortunate that I am not able to say the same for my younger sister as poisonous shows such as “Hannah Montana,”  “Victorious,” and “iCarly” engulfed her and her peers in elementary school. I characterize them as poisonous for a few reasons, primarily it is because they glorify “hooking up” with boys at an early age. They glorify going out earlier. They glorify makeup and prissiness earlier. They glorify the desire of attention from boys and provoke drama earlier. In summary, they celebrate young girls acting older earlier than they should, when in reality, these adolescents lack true maturity and life experience.

        As James Bond’s spy missions and his lady comrades began to intrigue me as I entered middle school, my sister had already cycled through numerous obsessions for multiple boy bands from “The Jonas Brothers” to “One Direction,” to “Justin Bieber.” The constant flow of this earlier maturing has progressed nonstop over the years; however, the last few have engulfed my sister and her friends like never before. The “Spy Kids” movie series was legendary to my friends and me in elementary school. With its reversal of roles, the storyline had the children rescue their parents with their spy skills along with their submarine equipped with a microwave that could instantly pop out Mcdonald’s meals with the push of a button.

        It is tragic how much the rush to be older has steadily been glorified not just since the ‘70s as many people think, but just recently the new millennium itself has brought 8 year olds worshipping the life of 18 year olds and has been overlooked. The evolution of AOL instant messenger and Myspace in 7th grade that my peers and I experienced has been replaced by elementary students begging for $600 iPhone 4s’s and furtive creations of Facebook accounts without parental consent. Not to mention the atrocious superficiality the aforementioned encourages especially in females, is digging into the skulls of younger and younger children as each day passes, chipping away at their innocence and luring them to the perils of adulthood — all before puberty has struck.

        Let me make clear now that I was by no means a sheltered or unaware kid as I grew. I did enjoy what were likely more than an ample amount of fantasy video games throughout my years. In early elementary school, the Nintendo 64 marked the beginning of my game console stockpile. No doubt, I have played all sorts of video games, similar to many males (and within the last 5 years now, females as well!). Shooting things on a screen seemed pretty cool along with racing cars and playing as Brett Favre.
        However, it is imperative to note that although what could be harshly described an imaginative fascination grew, I was fully aware that I was not old enough to legally/safely own a gun and still am not to this day. There was no pressure from media to adopt the ways of Miami cocaine suppliers nor did I ever once think eating a mushroom would allow me to triple my height like Super Mario. I never became interested in real life violence, as I still have only been in two fights to this day. If anything, my interests in action videogames fostered an interest in the extreme sport of paintball. In early middle school, paintball was an interest and hobby my first main group of friends had in common and it is likely what originally linked together our friendships that still exist today. It is ironic how much criticism many games used to receive 10 years ago when animated blood, gore, and foul language were new and considered outrageously controversial. Yet it is surprising that any criticisms of the provocativeness of Justin Bieber’s “Baby, baby, babyyy Oooooh!” and it’s obvious targeting to pre-pubescent females have not been much more than a sheer whisper.