Media and Childhood

Early Favorites
When I was little I played a lot of Pokemon. I still do. I played and play relatively violent video games. Like most other little girls my age, I was obsessed with the Backstreet Boys. Unlike most girls my age, I loved dinosaurs. I remember I first saw Jurassic Park when I was 5, it scared the dickens out of me. Then for the longest time it was my favorite movie, until I read the book. Speaking of books, Holes is one of my favorite; the summer after 5th grade, my friend and I were obsessed with it, we even tried to dig holes that were 5 feet wide and 5 feet deep.
The dinosaur thing really influenced my values, most kids go though a dinosaur phase, but I still love them and I'm thinking of going to school to be a paleontologist. I think that my fascination with dinosaurs led me to value science and evolution more than I might have.
Gender Roles/Self-Image
Many programs on TV try to encourage certain gender roles, but I try to use my parents as gender roles.
A lot of people might be influenced to change their self-image to agree with media images, but I take it more as something I don't want to be.
Boundaries & Guidelines
My parents never really restricted media. Although I didn't watch PG13 movie until I was about 11, when I was actually interested in seeing them. I still watch a lot of PG movies, but most of them were made in the late 70s so they're PG13 by today's standards. I will probably not let my children watch PG13 movies until they're actually 13.
Historical Events
I vaguely remember sitting ina 4th grade classroom on September 11, 2001 and watching the news. I remember Katrina and especially the 35W bridge collapse, I had drove over that bridge twice the day before.
Opinions about Violence
I personally love violent games and movies (as long as they have a good plot). Smaller children have a tendency to repeat things they see or hear on TV or in a movie, older kids should know better. It takes a certain maturity to go from "OK, this must be how I should act" to "LOL, this is entertaining, but I'd never actually do it". It should really be the parent's job to make sure their children know how not to act.