Page 117 - SpringBoard_ELA_Grade7_Flipbook

aCTIvITy 2.3
continued
analyzing Informational Text
dividends: rewards
track: follow after
My Notes
• Nearly a third of those surveyed (32%) admitted to feeling pressure to buy certain products such as clothes and CDs because their friends have them. Over half of 12- to 13-year-olds (54%) admitted to feeling such pressure.
• The nagging strategy is paying dividends for kids and marketers alike: 55% of kids surveyed said they are usually successful in getting their parents to give in.8
What Kids Really Want
• According to a 2003 New American Dream poll, 57 percent of children age 9–14 would rather do something fun with their mom or dad than go to the mall to go shopping.9
In Schools
• The American Beverage Association (formerly National Soft Drink Association) at one point estimated that nearly two thirds of schools nationwide had exclusive “pouring rights” contracts with soda companies.10
Harming Children’s Well-Being
• Obesity: Rising levels of childhood obesity track an explosion of junk food ads in recent years.11
• Emotional well-being: Author and Boston College sociology professor Juliet Schor finds links between immersion in consumer culture and depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and conflicts with parents.12
• Financial self-control: National surveys reveal that kids are leaving high school without a basic understanding of issues relating to savings and credit card debt. No surprise, then, that over the past decade, credit card debt among 18–24 year olds more than doubled.13
8 “Thanks to Ads, Kids Won’t Take No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No, No for an Answer,” Center for a New American Dream, 2002, www.newdream.org/kids/poll.php (accessed March 5,
9 2006).
“What Do Kids Really Want That Money Can’t Buy?” Center for a New American Dream,
10 2003, www.newdream.org/publications/bookrelease.php (accessed March 8, 2006).
Katherine Battle Horgen, “Big Food, Big Money, Big Children,” in Childhood Lost: How American Culture is Failing Our Kids, Sharna Olfman, ed, 128. (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger
11 Publishers, 2005).
12 American Psychological Association 2004.
13 Schor, 167–172.
“Young People Taking on More Debt,” www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june05/ debt_5–25.html (accessed March 8, 2006).
90 SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 7
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