Your child is a "sitting duck" for today's irresponsible marketers
By Robert Reiher Ph.D. & Daniel Acuff Ph.D.
Parents today are more frustrated and concerned than ever about how their children are being immersed in age inappropriate media and messages. Aware and committed parents are trying to do everything they can to protect their children from the continual barrage of adult oriented images and advertising on TV, in film and videogames and in publications and even convenience stores - but often it's not enough.
Simultaneously, irresponsible marketers are working diligently to invent innovative and often manipulative strategies to capture the "minds" of new kid consumers in a world of high stakes competition. Children today are truly "sitting ducks" in a society where their attitudes, beliefs, values and preferences influence 600 billion dollars worth of product and program dollars per year.
Just what makes our kids today more vulnerable than ever? In our new book, KIDNAPPED, How Irresponsible Marketers are Stealing The Minds of Your Children, we introduce parents, advocates, educators and marketers to a set of critical blind spots that prevent children, especially at younger ages (0-12 years), from understanding the powerful impact of today's contemporary advertising and marketing machine.
A blind spot, as we define it, is a developmental condition, either biological or psychological, beyond a person's awareness, that can prevent them from making accurate, sound and discriminating choices. We all have blind spots, even as adults, but children are especially vulnerable to marketers and advertisers at the younger ages when rational choices and higher levels of thinking and awareness are limited. Let's take one example of a very powerful blind spot for children, the attention blind spot.
First, it's important as a parent to understand that attention is a critical first step in the learning process, whether what is learned is positive or negative. If a child is not paying attention to incoming information, learning will be far less effective than if there is a strong "orienting" or attentional mechanism at work. Whatever grabs or holds your child's attention will be more quickly absorbed and stored into their rapidly expanding mind map of the world.
This brain based (biological foundation) attention mechanism is called the "orienting response" and most often occurs unconsciously, outside a child's awareness. It is an automatic response to something in a child's world that is typically novel and different. It is especially strong if linked to a pressing and powerful underlying need or want, which ultimately increases the strength of the attention or orienting mechanism. Think about a curious little kitten, staring up at you, then veering off and following an ant, almost compelled to focus on something novel and unique until it learns enough about it, at least for the moment, and then moves on to discover something new. This is the orienting response in action. Marketers and advertisers clearly understand the importance of attention and make it a high priority in designing their age related advertising and marketing strategies. The name of the consumer game is "eyeballs", and attention is the entry point for gaining access to new products and programs.
Because we are "hard wired" with this attention blind spot, we cannot "not" pay attention to something new, unique and novel, especially when its in alignment with the needs and wants of our particular developmental age and stage. This brain-based condition has a long history of survival value at its core. In our earlier stages of human development, our very existence depended on our ability to orient our senses to unique and novel stimuli. If we did not have a keen attention mechanism at work, we could be caught off guard. Our life in a survival based civilization absolutely depended upon it.
But when it comes to your children in today's world of consumerism, there are new and often negative "side effects" associated with this powerful attention blind spot that can prevent them from making accurate, sound and discriminating choices. This blind spot is the "glue" that holds the child's interest to new and exciting products and programs, even if they're not age appropriate. It's the initial "hook" that sets desire in motion, and leads to wanting and sometimes even demanding a new product or program. Someone once made the comment that you eventually become what you pay attention to, and herein lies a major concern for today's parents and especially for their children.
Television, film, videogames, computers and other high tech gadgets and media have evolved at a blinding speed with almost unlimited built in potentials to "trigger" the orienting or attention response in children. These are considered "hot" mediums, complete with moving images, special effects, unique and powerful graphics, exciting colors, humorous and strange characters, and sound effects - all of which increase the potential for gaining a higher level of attention for the intended receiver. Compare this expanding range of new visual and auditory "hot" mediums with the slower, less stimulating, more verbally dominant "cold" mediums such as printed packages, brochures, flyers, books, or pamphlets and you'll understand why kids today, immersed deeper in the world of high technology and "hot" attention getting mediums, find school to be increasingly "boring".
With the attention blind spot, it's no accident that "hot" media consume more than 40 hours of a child's time each week, outside and beyond the school setting. Hot mediums entertain, immerse, compel, and excite the senses, keeping the orienting response constantly engaged. Can a teacher today, in a traditional classroom setting, really begin to compete with this expanding media world so dominant outside of the classroom? And how does advertising and marketing fit into all of this?
As "high powered" technological advances in media increase, they are rapidly incorporated into the "toolbox" of marketing and advertising techniques and increasingly used to gain the attention of the potential consumer, especially children. The combined onslaught of the "techo-mediated world" slowly and steadily changes what children expect, eventually translating into a media dominant lifestyle or way of life. The result is more time spent with machines and with external stimulation and less time spent with human interaction, outdoor activity, reading and imaginative free play.
Morphing techniques are a good example. As computer technology advances, it develops more and more spectacular special effect techniques that can instantly blend or morph one image into another. This creates exciting, entertaining and unprecedented visual images (The Matrix, Batman, The Hulk, etc.). It immerses the viewer into new, out of this world, experiences.
Then we see the translation of these amazing visual special effects into "hotter" advertising mediums as well. The underlying reason is the attention blind spot. Spectacular and immersive technologies coerce and command us to pay attention on an unconscious level. They keeps us mesmerized, transfixed and in a state of awe. Our biologically based orienting response is activated and fully engaged in the wonder and excitement of unique and novel information opening the gate to the consumer concepts and ideas that advertisers and marketers want to plant into our memory.
As parents where does this leave us? What can we possibly do to help protect our children from unwanted age inappropriate messages and manipulation, when the escalating advances in technology are being incorporated into ever expanding media and advertising campaigns?
In KIDNAPPED, we outline a wide range of developmentally appropriate youth enrichment strategies (Y.E.S. Strategies) designed specifically for 0-2, 3-7, 8-12, 13-15, and 16-19 year olds. Because each of these developmental stages has its own inherent set of unique issues, Y.E.S. strategies are specifically tailored to different ages and stages of childhood development. They are based on our current knowledge of a set of core brain based learning principles which apply to children of all ages. The following five brain based learning principles are an example.
- The unfolding brain of a child correlates directly with their age and stage of development. As the child's development "unfolds", the brain unfolds in a parallel fashion.
- The brain of the child is an active "seeker" of information. The orienting response (attention blind spot) is a biologically based system that is constantly active and open to novelty in the "seeking" process .
- The child's brain is social. It is dependent on the surrounding social environment for maximum learning and nourishment.
- The child's brain is constantly making meaning out of incoming information. Meaning is a necessary and needed counterpart of the brain interacting with the surrounding environment.
- Emotions play a major role in learning. There is a direct link between the thinking and the feeling dimensions of the brain.
- Children today are in desperate need of guidance. The attention blind spot is in effect with all incoming information. The child's brain will make meaning out of the world at its own particular developmental level. The adult brain has maturity and experience in making meaning. This should guide the meaning making brain of the child.
- You're in charge! Create a family media plan that limits time spent with TV, videogames, computers, radio and other media. Understand that the attention blind spot is at play with your child. Advertisers and marketers will be focused on using "hot" mediums to create the orienting response to open the gate to higher levels of consumerism.
- When its age appropriate, discuss and inform your children of the attention getting devices that are being used by marketers and advertisers. Help your child to understand how attention is the first stage or entry point to captivating the senses and the thinking process.
- Promote use of the "colder" mediums (especially reading) to give your child a "counterbalance" experience of media. "Cold" mediums draw more on the child's inner resources for attention as opposed to the manufactured and contrived "hot" medium effects.
- Your child learns a great deal from observing what you do. Observational learning means that the attention blind spot is focused on you as well as outside media. Your are always the guide and teacher – the model - that your child is attending to whether you are aware of it or not. Remember, a person becomes what he pays attention to.
These examples of brain based learning principles are foundational to the sample Y.E.S. (youth enrichment strategies) that follow as they relate to the attention blind spot. As a parent and/or caregiver it is important to remember:
Parents today, more than any other time in history, must be aware of the expanding impact of technological innovation and how your child's attention blind spot is constantly being influenced. In order to best protect and nurture your children as they develop and grow, it's imperative that you manage how they spend their time and what they are paying attention to. Nothing less than the well-being, success and happiness of you and your children is at stake.
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