Throughout the years, children have been exposed to a multitude of things. My early years were filled with Blue’s Clues, Bear in the Big Blue House, Sesame Street, and many more classic shows that I’m sure the vast majority of Lake Mary was also exposed to. However, when we look at the youth today, it seems that they aren’t being exposed to as many educational shows. Even though educational shows may still be around, they don’t get the same amount of airtime as they did when I was going through my key developmental ages. And it’s not just the lack of educational shows…the music, culture and everything else has changed dramatically and is visually affecting today’s youth.

“I was with my little cousin listening to music. It was my music so it probably wasn’t the most appropriate for her but I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, until she started singing every lyric…It was literally the craziest thing I’ve ever witnessed. She was 6 and knew every word to Only by Nicki Minaj,” said junior Jacquie Copley. I don’t know if this is necessarily a bad thing, considering the fact that a 6 year old knowing every word to a vulgar song is hilarious, but the vast majority of people would probably think that’s disgusting. So the question is: how are these kids exposed to all of this? Well the answer is quite obvious- it’s everywhere. On the radio, on television, in movies, and even coming from parents. An observation I’ve made is that people are starting to have kids at a younger age, and they’re more involved with today’s culture, resulting in parents playing this music, or watching certain things that don’t really fly with a 6 year old.

Current events also negatively impact the minds of children these days. When I was 7 years old the only thing I can think of that happened that was kind of bad was that Jamie Lynn Spears got pregnant and ruined Zoey 101. Today, kids are exposed to the likes of beheadings from ISIS, a mass shooting every other week, and the controversies of the 2016 presidential election.

Senior Ryan Blankenship said, “If I were 6 or 7 years old and I was seeing reports of mass shootings pretty much every other week…I would probably be pretty messed up by this time. The world is a pretty messed up place and I feel bad for the kids that are being exposed to this at such an early age.”