When you hear the words “role model”, who or what do you think of? When I hear it a string of actors, musicians, athletes and, celebrities appear in my head. Is this the way kids today have been brainwashed by the T.V. and the radio? What happened to the days when you could ask a child who their role model was and they would answer, “My mommy” or “My daddy”? Our society needs to think about the true role models and not the bad examples. Celebrities and athletes can be a good example sometimes, but like us, they are human, they cannot provide the good influence that kids need today. Let me begin by saying who is the better role model, 50 Cent or a single parent with three kids holding down two jobs? The real role models of this world are who we thought they were when we were little. They are the fireman, the police officer, the doctor, the construction worker, and the good parent. My parents are my role models, they each hold down a good job and get me to all of my activities and interests. The truth is that more people should be this way, the parental example in America has just fallen by the wayside. A good example of someone who should have been a good role model was Michael Vick.
He was a great athlete, good with kids and all and all, well rounded. Then when was into dog fighting everything fell by the wayside. He lost his sponsors, his friends, and had to go to prison. This was a very good thing to do, to show his fan base, (and the kids who was a role model for), that this was wrong. Honestly, how much of a disaster would it have been if kids had continued to make him their role model and thought dog fighting was okay? We would have had the whole youth of America to deal with. T.V. and radio hype are the reasons that children today are taking on irresponsible role models. I for one think that programs like entertainment tonight should come on later. Some music should cost more if it has a very bad meaning to it.
It should be about a dollar more, the reason for this is that people don’t care if it has a parental warning on it anymore. Another thing is how can measure up to professional athlete or musician. What do you say when you find your child upset because he couldn’t play a song exactly like the artist did? What do you do when your child does not want to play football anymore because they can’t throw the foot ball as far as Brett Favre? It’s an unrealistic goal to attain, to be like a celebrity role model. I don’t think celebrities make good role models. They can be a bad influence on children. They can also make them disrespectful and not caring, things like this can happen through music. Children can think “oh well so and so did it, and they are famous.” T.V. and radio can affect how a child thinks of a role model. All of these things take away from the real role models, the police officers, the soldiers, the fireman, the doctor, and the good parent. Also, it can make children depressed because they can’t measure up to the celebrity role model they like.