A Review on the Role of Media in Increasing Materialism among Children

摘要

This paper reviews the literature to investigate the role of media in increasing materialism among children. It also studies the consequence of rising materialism on the development of children. Due to their enhanced role in family purchase decisions marketers are making children sufferers of materialistic world. Marketers know that children easily get fascinated towards unrealistic belongings endorsed by their promotional offers and persuade their parents to purchase those belongings. However, the unfulfilled requests of children for materialistic things make them dissatisfied and unhappy, which later on cause conflicting situation in family. The exposure of children to media at small age also makes them susceptible towards external environment by generating materialism. This materialism is leading to excessive consumption and impulsive purchase by children. To deal with these issues, sufficient attention needs to be given by parents to divert child's attention from materialistic to the real world. Thus, the role of guidance provided by parents has been found very significant in mitigating the effect of materialism among children.