Subliminal Messages.

References: Vargas, E. (no date) Subliminal Messages and Children. Available at: http://subliminalmessag.weebly.com/ester-vargas.html (Accessed: 10th September 2015).

Subliminal messages have been used in the media for many years. In the dictionary, subliminal has a meaning of “being or employing stimuli insufficiently intense to produce a discrete sensation but often being or designed to be intense enough to influence the mental processes or the behavior of the individual,” (http://dictionary.reference.com/). 

A webpage I came across talks about subliminal messages and their effect on children. 

One point which really made me think was 'Children learn to speak through the words being spoken by the people around them and what they see eventually influences them to act and be a certain way. Humans can be affected by the events that happen in their lives and be persuaded easily even with the simplest thing. Nowadays, television has been part of our lives from morning to night and even if accepted or not, television has affected us one way or another.' 

It is quite shocking when you think about how much of an impact the television can have on the upbringing of your child. Yes, they are a great tool for leaning and picking things up much quicker, a lot of young people around me who watch a lot of children's TV are really quite intelligent for their age. The big problem is when it starts to have a negative impact on them. How easy is it to make a child believe that a particular brand of food is the most amazing thing that could ever happen to them? The same food which could have huge negative implications on their future. Televisions are in almost every bodies homes and children are being exposed to them more and more as time goes by. Subliminal messages are used in almost everything we see on the television and could even be brainwashing children into believing all kinds that you wouldn't even consider possible.

Referring back to previous posts, this is another reason why advertising to children should be monitored much more! 

'Advertisers have used every resource they have to become “persuasion masters” and find a way to insert their messages in to peoples’ mind, knowing that information will stay and that everyone falls for it. Subliminal messages are directed to everyone, but the easiest targets are children.  Children start watching television and listening to the radio from a young age. What parents do not know is that they are exposing their children to subliminal messages. Advertisers are not the only ones that use these types of influences, so do programs like cartoons and shows.'

Subliminal messages are everywhere. An interesting point that this webpage brought up was that not only do the messaged target children, they also target parents into believing that the programmes their children are watching are good for them. 

'marketing is targeted toward the children to keep watching, but the subliminal messages are for the adults making them think that the cartoons their children are watching are good when in reality they are not.'

The article then goes on to talk about how it's not just advertisements and cartoons which are targeting children, but also movies—even disney! It brings up some interesting research that shows just how much of an impact these little details have. From making children less sensitive to the pain and suffering to others to making them more likely to become aggressive and use harmful actions towards others. 

'Over the years subliminal messages have been used making humans have a sense of familiarity of things that they never thought had any relationship with them. However, what some do not realize is that this sense of familiarity is affecting them more than just wasting their money. Subliminal messages have made people victims psychologically and physically. Children’s behavior has changed by the type of things being watched in television and have had a false sense of reality due to the communications gathered from the programs watched in TV. Parents need to be more aware of what their kids watch because the effect they might suffer from the subliminal messages being displayed might harm them in many different ways. Not every program shown in television has subliminal messages so it only takes a little bit of time and a well trained eye to see if what you are watching is trying to tell you something else.'  

Although this webpage focuses more on the violent affects of subliminal messages in cartoons and film, it brings to my attention just how much of an impact these messages can have. Tempting children into eating a certain type of food seems like nothing compared to making them more likely to go out and hurt someone but the seemingly innocent actions of these companies could just be the cause of the rise in childhood obesity or eating disorders!