Since I grew up in the early eighties the society really has changed a lot, and now as a grown up I have difficulties to understand how it is to grow up in today’s society. But one thing that I really think about a lot when I meet younger children is that they are so conscious about their appearance, they wear make up and designer clothes especially girls. When I was ten years old I played with Lego and played a lot outdoors with kids in my neighbourhood. We never discussed things like music, celebrities, make up or clothes like many children do today.
We wore the clothes our parents bought and clothes were never really important, except maybe when we went to birthday parties. I can’t say if their childhood is worse than mine but there is a big difference between these childhoods of today and my childhood almost twenty years ago. I also think that this is a very regional difference because I grew up in the countryside where there were no possibilities to go shopping or to be affected by huge cloth companies like H&M and JC.
According to my experiences I think that children today deal with other problems than we did as we grew up. Today the media and different advertisements turn directly to young children and today it is more common to have a lot of more TV-channels and a “new” invention, the internet. When we grew up we were very sheltered from advertisements, because we only had three channels, 1, 2 & 4 and only on of them allowed advertisements. Today you really are surrounded by advertisements in the internet, in commercial television, advertising bills, advertising brochures, and also in newspapers and in different radio programs. I Think that this affects both young children but also grown ups as well.
I would like to have more discussions especially in school about how different Medias affect our life and the way we see ourselves. I think that it is very important to work with self-esteem and self-confidence with younger children, because I think that you can get very positive affects in the classroom if you have students with a positive “think” about themselves. Everyone is different but that’s a very positive thing that you as a teacher must promote as a positive thing and secure it in your classroom and in your students.
Dear Linn,
SvaraRaderaThanks for an interesting text comparing children of today with children in the 80s.
Your introduction starts out fine, but after the first sentence you deal with appearance issues, issues which actually belong in paragraph 2. Instead, after the first sentence, you could have written something like “There are two areas where the differences are very obvious: the interest in one’s appearance and the abundance of advertisements.” (or something like that).
After that, you deal with clothes (appearance!) in paragraph 2, and advertisements in paragraph 3. You deal with one idea per paragraph, which is the way to go! In paragraph 2 you have a kind of topic sentence, but I think it would have been more effective if you had said e.g. “When it comes to appearance, it is of much more importance to children of today.” In paragraph 3 it would have been good to have a topic sentence that tells the reader that you will deal with advertisement there.
Your concluding paragraph is good, but it would have been even better if you had very briefly summarised what you say in paragraphs 2 and 3 before you conclude with children’s self-esteem.
As to language, reflect on when a noun is used in the generic sense, as “society” is in “Since I grew up in the early eighties the society really has changed”. Therefore, it shouldn’t have the definite article. Also, you say “what it is like” rather than “how” in “understand how it is to grow up”. It is a bit too much to say “have a lot of more TV-channels” – choose one of them: either “a lot of” or “more”. In “I think that this affects both young children but also grown ups as well.” you say the same thing three times: “both”, “but also” and “as well”. Say either “both young children and grown-ups” or “young children as well as grown-ups”. As to vocabulary, check out the difference between “affect” and “effect”. Also, you have thoughts about things, not “think”.
Looking forward to reading your next blog!
Marika
Hi Linn ^^
SvaraRaderaI think that you have choosen a good angle in the clothes. I agree that the clothes weren´t important in the same way as it is today and i really agree with the media aspect. Children today is influenced in a lot more ways than we when we were young.
Your spelling is good and the text is intresting.
// Andreas