Consuming Childhoods

Question 1

What is the commercial world?

Answer 1

• any products
• commercial messages
• entertainment businesses
• publishing
• shopping
• goods and services demonstrating the range of sources and media outlets that provide a gateway for a rapidly expanding children’s market

Question 2

What are some of the commercial (money-oriented) influences on childhood?

Answer 2

• clothes and the brands along with the products define who they are and that specific products and brands validate their social status
• increased levels of childhood obesity, mental health issues, attention deficit disorders, bullying, addictions to drink, drugs and video games are attributed to the influences of the commercial world
• ‘Loss of childhood’ = suggest childhood today is fast deteriorating compared to past childhood experiences
• Modern childhood →social deterioration

Question 3

Sociological approach to how children become consumers

Answer 3

• different ways children internalize culture and society through learned consumerism
• people create shared meanings, beliefs, values through symbols

Question 4

Psychological approach to how children become consumers

Answer 4

• based on age and stages in consumer socialization
• linked to development of the capacities of children

Question 5

What are the 2 purposes of an advert?

Answer 5

To get information out there about a product and to persuade individuals to buy the product

Question 6

How do ads create interest in children through stimuli?

Answer 6

use recognizable characters from their social worlds (Disney characters and music)

→putting their products in the most advantageous places where they will command children’s attention (using pester power)

Question 7

How do companies take advantage of children’s vulnerability?

Answer 7

• children and young people who are trying to establish their own identity within their own peer group
• ‘identity’ is predominantly expressed by one’s capacity to consume

Question 8

what is the post-modern perspective?

Answer 8

• children’s engagement with consumer complex, children are more active in the process, not just victims, and have power to influence parents