The paper establishes the impact of media on cultural socialization. The focus is on social media and television, which are the highly consumed media platforms in the contemporary world. The evolution of technology has made it easier to overcome the barrier in communication and multicultural/ multinational socialization by bridging the distance. The paper establishes how media affects the identity development of youths. Secondly, how the media shapes social relationships both in the family and external world. Thirdly, the positive impact of relaxed video games and music. Fourthly, the papers establish the effect of media on learner’s academic performance. Unto to the negative influence, media causes social isolation, initiates youths into the consumerist culture and causes depression and self-esteem amongst teenagers due to body shaming. The essay offers recommendations on intentions to helps parents pervert the negative impacts of media on their children.
Medias Effect on Cultural Socialization
Socialization is a process that shapes the relationships between individuals by giving them a sense of belonging through shared values, beliefs, and cultural norms. There are several agents of socialization, including families, friends, and institutions of learning. Media have become the most influential force that is used to connect individuals across the globe ( Kammerl and Kramer, 2016). Historically, media; which is as a result of new technology has a significant cultural influence and socialization in society. The internet has also grown into an object of glorification through its technophile advocates who argue that the public acquires information through media that transforms their lives to a creative and enlightened existence ( Moschis and Moore, 2016) . Media currently influences the way people work and interact with one another, which is an indication that the media has a significant impact on culture. Social media, in particular, influence the human behaviors illustrated through the recent outbreaks of resistance and social protests that have been carried on social media without physically gathering people. Researchers raise concerns on the benefits and negative impact of media. To start with, the media has brought a new era of communication and enhanced interactions amongst individuals with unlimited access to information for users ( Hwang and Kim, 2015) . On the contrary, media is feared to cause negative impacts like causing a shift in the psychological, cultural and social divisions that are likely to occur due to the high consumption of the media through different platforms like the television, video games, and social media that cuts across all generations and ages today. Therefore, the media impact all ages of life since there are media channels in schools, at home, and the workplace. Media has a powerful effect on the cultural socialization of children because they are born in the internet era and have access to information through televisions and social media. As such, media influences a generational cohort targeting individuals from their childhood to the adolescent stage as children gain increased access to social media. Thus, media impacts on the identity development of children through social media socialization and interaction with media personalities/ characters who shape their social and cultural understanding.
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Media as the primary source of Identity
Social media is the primary instrument that aid identity formation amongst teenagers. From psychological research, identity development is the critical primary goal for teenagers to transit to adulthood. Identity development is related to tasks like development and application of abstract thinking skills and decision making. Also, one needs to identify moral values, belief system, and relationship with peers and parents. Identity development is also linked to a sense of social belonging, spiritual values, and career development. In this case, teenagers find out the unique personalities about themselves that relate/ coincides effortlessly with a given social group. Media plays a significant role in shaping identity if teenagers ( Timmermans, 2018) . Teenagers learn of their identity through the internet, video games, television programs, and advertisements. Teenagers will identify their media preference through media characters/ personalities. The media has a wide variety of fictional characters who appear in movies, televisions, in comics, books and video games in addition to the real-life celebrities in reality shows and social media that give teenagers the opportunity of identification ( Sullivan and Platenburg, 2017) . Social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WeChat, and snapchat are the best for identity exploration.
Identity building amongst teenagers is enhanced by their sense of belonging to specific groups. The internet through social media enables youths to connects with their peers for experimentation. With the current trends of internet consumption, interactions on social media have gone to the global level that teenagers can relate with people of different religion, political background, and ethnicity which results into the promotion of the intercultural exchange. Moreover, Facebook, which is the social media platform with the highest subscribers, enhances cultural homogenization and mainstreaming. Similarly, YouTube has enabled individuals to listen to similar music regardless of their country of origin. People live stream global reality shows and movies (America Got Talent, British Got Talent, Star Wars, and Harry Potter). Video games have been similar across the globe (Fifa, Call of Duty). Information about these activities is shared on social media platforms that are easily accessible through mobile phones. Most of the activities originate from North America but become impactful that is a practice across the globe ( Dieckhoff and Gutierrez, 2017) . People today have almost similar fashion trends, foods, and beauty standards that they learn from celebrities on TV or social media.
With the digital revolution, children and teenagers are socialized in consumerism cultures across the globe that they have become the main target of most advertisements. The media, through commercials, implicitly promote consumer goods with the idea that they shape the identity of an individual, making them happy ( Baird and Ionescu, 2016) . Adolescents brands are increasingly advertised in the market; thus, the media influences on adolescent’s’ consumption behavior. Youths currently use brands in the market as their identity ( Gauthier, Woodhead, and Martikainen, 2016). For instance, children will identify themselves with Gucci an impact from hip/ hop artists. They are likely to put on specific clothing from a company label that sponsors their football or basketball team.
Media shapes social relationships
Media allows people to interact and reach out on each other regardless of distances between them. Individuals with similar interested easily engage each other when they create connections and get to know each other. People of similar interests meet in groups on WhatsApp or Facebook. One of the reasons one will use the media is social motivation. The media has excellent content that builds a topic of conversation between family members and friends, which leads to social bonding ( Van den Bulck, Custers, and Nelissen, 2016). According to the Parasocial theory, audience members of specific programs will develop sides opinions/ relationships with regards to a common character that each of them supports in the TV program, movie, or a celebrity. For instance, teenagers watching a football match may be fans of player X whom they both follow on social media. When they interact with the character on social media like Instagram, they often comment and like the character's posts whom they feel is a close friend. Furthermore, one can easily connect with friends that are not physically present. According to research, Facebook users, for instance, hardly feel loneliness since they get to communicate with loved ones or family members who are a distance away from them ( Schivinski and Dabrowski, 2016) . Active participation in social media reduces loneliness. Thus social media strengthens weak social ties.
Today's culture has thoroughly intertwined with the internet. Important human relationships are formed through the media. An example is the increasing and successful social dating platforms on social media. The media has made it easier for individuals who find difficulties in creating significant relationships from the offline world ( Prot et al., 2017) . Virtual encounters have a substantial impact on how individuals conduct their individual affairs. Children in the digital world mediate their social lives on social media and mobile phones. Their friendship interactions and peer relations are done online. These new platforms of communication, like the use of text messages, have a significant negative impact on native languages. Children can no longer learn their native dialects; the traditional rituals and symbols that were seen important in the past are hardly practiced today ( Kraaykamp and Notten, 2016) . Children find a new identity in social media. Media connects individuals from across the globe, thus promoting the interconnectedness of the culturally diverse universe. As the use of social media increases, individuals find their like-minded in the form of behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes whom they add to their networks. Such interactions connect diversity from individuals of different opinions and traditions by bridging the limitations of distance and time. Therefore, social media impacts on the physical, cultural, and social adaptation of individuals. Allowing children to access social media shapes their intercultural relationship with others across the globe as they can create their network.
Media can induce good moods in individuals through entertainment, which helps individuals to counteract loneliness and evil thoughts into peacefulness, happiness/ tranquility. Good moods activate behavior and reduce anger/ aggressive feelings. Similarly, relaxing video games reduces aggressiveness. Individuals who play relaxing games are less aggressive. Furthermore, children who watch prosocial television programs are friendly. Even though researchers establish that media can harm the school performance of children, children can be monitored to engage in educational media, which can help them to improve their instructional skills. There are educational programs that can help children to develop reading competencies for the children in middle school. Children can watch interactive shows like Dora and Blue Cues that can actively engage them in class work. Television can be used to teach children, especially when they attend programs like Sesame Street ( Lauricella, Wartella and Rideout, 2015). This program teaches toddlers valuable lessons of racial harmony, kindness, cooperation, and arithmetic. Other public TV programs have images of the zoo, museums, and recreational settings for children. However, watching television consumes much time of school work ( Richards, Deborah, Patrina, and Go) . Therefore, parents should control children’s watching hours to create time for other activities while at home.
Media could make the reason for social exclusion amongst the youths. Media sometimes feed teens distorted information from reality through stereotypes and false models to represent the overall outlook of society. What the popular culture is influential to the extent that it has become universal and teens copy the fake lifestyle thus losing their mark in cultural socialization instead they follow the universal trends that promote new conducts, social models and values of the dominant ideology which is much far from the reality ( Genner and Süss, 2017). The media today collaborates in the advertisement of consumerist models negatively by turning the society into consumer culture. It gives teens the need to consume certain products that they desperately yearn for unaffordable lifestyles.
Media could also trigger negative emotions in individuals through stereotypes. One of the most prevalent case today is body image. The individual will develop low esteem and ran into depression due to the stereotype they encounter from the media. Body shaming is a growing impact in the United States, whereby individuals begin comparing themselves to celebrities ( Gaffney, 2017) . Youths, especially in adolescent, want to look like their favorite media personalities or models, yet the models appear on screens with makeups of they are their images photoshopped in advertisements to look young, flawless and skinny so that they can be noticed, loved and wanted (Robinson et al., 2017). Teens’ view of their body images is a stereotype obsession that the media forms on skinny and tanned female models. The impact of body image is rampant in women whereby most of the pictures of ads that run on social media pages are of bikini-wearing women who advertise diet plan and weight loss to gain a thin and flawless body.
Intervening Media Influence on Cultural Socialization
When assessing the influence of media on the cultural socialization, psychologists should first research on the kinds of media that teens spent their time. They should not only focus on the negative impact but also on the positive effects as this research paper establishes. Media can negatively impact a child's cultural socialization if the child is permitted to access questionable sites that promote irresponsible sexual behaviors, violence, and consumerist culture. Parents should be made aware of the benefits of television in a child's development ( Hesketh, Crawford, Abbott, Campbell and Salmon, 2015). The television viewing for a child should be practiced with healthy viewing habits of a child. Physicians should also increase the awareness of the recent data on how the media is influencing a child’s development with the media and their psychological health. Families should explore and discuss the levels of media consumption on the homes ( Haughton, Aiken, and Cheevers, 2015) . Parents should criticize harmful programs that are likely to influence the children's' behaviors and draw a clear line between reality and fantasy, especially during the advertisement. Children should not be allowed to have computers, gaming consoles, or computers in their bedrooms. It is recommended to have a central location where they can have common access. Watching television should be limited to a maximum of 1-2hrs so that children can give room for other activities like attending to school assignments. For teens, they should be allowed to have a plan of their weekly views under the supervision of the parents who should verify suitable programs ( Pyper, Harrington and Manson, 2016). Physicians should promote a media awareness program in schools and the community. They should encourage awareness of the impacts of social media in high school with proven benefits. Support the good media and write to stations to promote responsible programs that parents and state can recommend for children that are not offensive.
Parents should not reposition their children indoors in a bedroom culture that breaks the intergenerational cultural ties with limited physical socialization. The trend towards the overdependence on media for companionship is a trend towards individualization and privatization of the family life which denies children the opportunity to interact with their physical environment. As such, the children grow up in the new media as the best way to avoid their elders, thus fording links with peers. Children will always try as hard to protect their interaction space where adults will not monitor them. For these reasons, families need to customize the level of media consumption.
In conclusion, media has a paramount influence on the development of children in their cultural socialization because it impacts their identity development, enhances socialization with pears and achievement of their educational goals. Media is evolving, and it is inevitable to avoid its growth and the increasing number of subscribers. Media does not only impact socialization amongst peer groups, but it is used in motivating people to become part of the growing community. The advancement in technology overcomes distance in connecting individuals. Individuals create their social circles of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, which are the popular social media platforms. Media positively impacts the youths in that it is not only seen as the avenue of socialization but also reconnects students away from the school where they can update each other on their learning-related issues. They connect with their peers, especially the introverts who would shy away from meeting their peers face to face. Teens who share similar interests for their identity development, engaging in multicultural platforms that they get to learn and appreciate other people's cultures. On the contrary, the media through advertisements creates a consumerism culture for youths because the ads target them specifically by learning about their behavior and demographics on their spending habits. Therefore, teens should use social media in moderation.
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