Before television became dominant, kids tended to aspire to the careers they were exposed to in real life. But today, children develop a picture of the adult work world from what they see on television.
As the Center for Media Literacy points out in the article “When I Grow Up: Children and the Work-World of Television,” tv programming is designed to be entertainment, not a realistic look at working adults. On television, characters tend to be doctors, lawyers, or detectives, and they spend most of their work time talking and socializing with each other. When they are doing actual work, it tends to be glamorous things like arguing multi-million-dollar jury lawsuits or doing life-saving surgery.
You usually do not see the mundane aspects of most careers portrayed. How many tv lawyers do you see filling out time sheets or summarizing deposition transcripts?
And most jobs are never even shown on television. When did you last see a show about civil engineers, actuaries, school teachers, or electricians?
As adults, we can help children have a more accurate picture of the adult world of work by pointing out television’s distorted image of working adults and by highlighting the many attractive job opportunities not portrayed in prime time.
