7/25 Readings

I thought that these two articles about media and risky behaviors were very interesting. The scholarly journal entitled "media and risky behaviors" explored different risky behaviors and compared how the media, movies, music and TV influence them. Some of the statistics presented in these articles were very shocking to me. One of the most shocking pieces of information i found was "in 2000, youth between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four accounted for 9.1 million (48 percent) of all new STI cases." I believe that the age that youth engage in sexual activities has decreased. I also think that this data presented in this journal should be presented more to parents. Often when watching the news, there is usually a story on childhood obesity. Kids in today's society spend more time inside playing video games than playing outside and exercising. This is contributing to the morbidity and mortality of youth. Other factors contributing to the morbidity and mortality of youh are smoking, underage drinking, early sexual initiation and violent behavior. As i stated earlier, I believe that this information should be passed around. Parents need to be aware of the possibilities that media can have on health behavior. I believe that if parents were to be more informed, crime and obesity rates could decrease.