The idea that some cultures went by the names “savage”, “civilized”, or “barbarous” is long gone and is viewed trying to revive the same stands out as racism. Nevertheless, the same notion comes out in different ways when people talk about other cultures for some argue that terms like “first world” and “third world” are euphemisms for more outdated terms.
Some of the terms used to describe third world countries include developing countries, the global south, and/or lower income countries. Using the term “developing country” has had numerous criticisms as it shows that a country is inferior compared to a country that is already developed.
The word developing means mobility and when talking in terms of development, there is no acknowledgement that the word may imply “static or decline”, especially in Southern African countries where the “word developing country” has an effect on such euphemism.
Another term that describes third world country is “majority world”. All these new terms are now being preferred so that countries that are not much ahead in terms of development might not feel inferior or think they are doing nothing to alleviate their situation.
Adults have created and maintained childhood innocence and from what I have read, innocence is not something that children are born with. Children are termed as innocent because the American culture regards the not-knowing state highly.
Therefore, children engage in some activities as a way of rebelling against some of the expectations that adults have for them, particularly in terms of displaying sexuality as well as skillful controlling of their bodies. Parents as well as teachers have expectations that affect children in a big way. However, the society bestows parents and teachers with different feelings of expecting too much from their children.
Anytime adults do not anticipate a certain level of achievement from children, children tend to lose confidence and thus underperform. In addition, they exude symptoms of anxiety, anger, and depression. On the other hand, too many expectations subject children to stress, which forces them to show anger, depression, and anxiety.
Children rebel in ways such as blatantly refusing to do what is required of them be it household chores or cleaning their room or using bad language among others. Since parents expect their children to be well behaved, children act completely different so that they can prove their parents wrong.
In my opinion, childhood’s innocence is undergoing a significant transformation especially concerning television shows, toys, and the Internet. According to recent studies, there is a great effect on children who watch TV and other different types of media.
Children start learning language even in their mother’s womb, and this realization shows that children are very quick learners and will grasp whatever comes their way be it good or bad. Heavy exposure to the aforementioned elements increases the harmful effects of sex, smoking, alcohol, and drug abuse.
According to a recent research, 93 per cent of children who watch different issues via the media have had sex at an earlier age. Therefore, in the light of these insights, children’s innocence is changing drastically as they want to keep up with what they see over the media.
In the traditional settings where there was no Internet, one can probably claim that children were innocent for information on areas like sex and alcohol was not readily available; however, in the modern society, adverts using sex as a way of promoting their products are all over including adverts promoting alcohol, and the combination of these elements is corrupting the innocent minds of the children.