Teaching your kids to be media-savvy

These questions can be integrated into everyday conversations as you consume media together, until they become a part of a child’s inner dialogue. All experts recommend many 1-2 minute conversations vs. a big lecture. So these wouldn’t be asked all at once!

Who do you think this message was made for? What tells you that?

Who profits from me believing this message? Who is advertising here?

Does this message seek to profit from my insecurities by selling solutions to fix my ‘flaws’?

Does it encourage me to fixate on my own or others’ appearances?

Does it promote or reinforce distorted ideals of what bodies and faces should look like- either through digital manipulation or featuring only one body type or ‘look’?  

Who created this? What tells you that?

Why did they make it? How can you tell?

What details were left out? Why do you think they were left out?

Who was represented and who was left out? Why do you think it was created this way?

How does this content make you feel?

Would you recommend this to someone you care about? Why or why not?

Parents, I hope you are doing this exercise too. If you don’t like the answers to any or all of the above, or if you recognize ways any media messages might be influencing you negatively, you now have a choice to make. Will you unfollow, mute, unsubscribe or otherwise limit or avoid consuming this type of content? Which particular sources do you think could be distorting your view of reality and reinforcing misleading messages?

If you want to minimize the negative effects of media in the lives of your whole family, you can start by turning away from the messages that do not serve you and free up time and space to make more discerning choices about what you take into your mind and heart. Of course, there will always be media that is both thoroughly entertaining and thoroughly objectifying. This doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing situation, you can just be selective about what you take in.

The more we ask these questions (to ourselves) and to our kids, the better equipped we will be to recognize the messages in mainstream and social media that trigger self-comparison, anxiety and other negative feelings. The last several paragraphs were taken from Lexie and Lindsay Kite’s book, More Than a Body, Your Body is an Instrument, not an Ornament.