THE JONES SYNDROME

By Miles Patrick Yohnke

© 2011 All Rights Reserved.

Children with adult faces. Let's explore this statement. Recently, as I was cycling to my destination, I passed a park along the way. As I went by, I heard a male voice. A man was training his young dog. With a clear and strong, yet tender voice, he was teaching his dog to sit and the dog did as he was commanded. With his leash on, they walked a few steps and repeated the process. He praised his dog and I could see that the dog was very happy.

The man was teaching the dog that it could be more. He taught the dog focus, discipline and structure. What really struck me was that he took the time.

HE TOOK THE TIME.

As I continued along my journey, I reflected on what I had witnessed.

Thinking how that man in the park took the time. He was there. He was getting the most out of that dog. How lucky that dog was.

How often do we take the time to teach our own children? We constantly hear:

"I'm so busy, I feel like I'm always running, I'm so stressed."

Our modern world is so inundated with marketing and advertising that has one goal and one goal only. And that is to make a product so attractive that the consumer feels a need or desire to possess it in order to feel fulfilled or popular. Children and teens need to understand the powerful attraction marketing can create. They have to learn to differentiate between what they truly need and what they want.

We need to teach our children that advertising exists so that people (many big corporations) can make money. And because of that, advertisers use powerful methods to convince consumers to buy their products.

We must teach our children how the media need paid advertising to stay on the air or to continue publishing. We need to show how advertising can convince people to want something even if they don't really need it. We should discuss this when we or our loved ones are confronted by advertising, whether on television, radio, in newspapers, magazines or on billboards.

We can discuss how advertising tries to make you feel better about yourself if you buy a certain product or convince you that other people will like you more or think you're "cool."

We should explain that shopping should not be seen as a fun pastime, but rather something people do to buy items they need. Explain the differences between need and want.

Help your children observe how many times a day families are exposed to advertising. For example, there are ads on the sides of buses, in arenas, on radio and television, on billboards, at the movies and on the internet.

Teach them to understand when a television or radio station tells you to tweet them or post to their Facebook site, that they are only doing so to create 'traffic hits' to their own site to help increase their revenue for future ads from other companies.

Show our youth that advertising tries to create an image of what a person should or should not look like even though this image does not reflect reality.

Here is the alarming thing: Do we yet know the difference? We still go back to the mindset of "I'm so busy, I feel like I'm always running, I'm so stressed."

Most couples both work full-time these days (divorce rates are soaring to an all-time high; tag-team parenting). They are overwhelmed. Overwhelmed for the most part on how to pay their mortgage or for the 'stuff' in their house. How to pay for their vehicles. Pay for their clothes (look popular).

For the most part, we don't understand the core values of life and the meaning of it.

Do we actually need to keep up with the Jones's? Or are we just children with adult faces?

Please listen to this powerful 4-minute song: "Up With The Jones" by Bahamas here.

Miles Patrick Yohnke at 56 and nine months of age. Photo by John Urbano.