It’s arguable that the degradation of societies has stemmed from continuous exposure to violent media, explicit video games, and lack of disciplined children in schools. While these factors are certainly contributing issues, they do not explain why moral values continue to decline among all age groups, cultures, and backgrounds. It is far more likely that poor values are created, and even supported through neglect and lack of ethical instruction.

We first develop ourselves, our manners, valued, ethics, and beliefs at home.  It is the direct responsibility of the adults in children’s lives to gently guide them into making choices that are based on strong, ethical motives. Negative attitudes towards others, and society, should be replaced with opportunities to expand their viewpoints in giving, and compassion. Some parents choose to take their children to homeless shelters during the holiday season. Others teach civic lessons at home that help develop deep social values. A child must be given a framework that encourages peace, positivity, and helps create a respect for their community.

Educators are also largely responsible for ensuring that school rules are followed, thus demonstrating that social arenas have parameters that must be respected. If a child continuously breaks rules, and shows disrespect to students and teachers, the parents, along with the student, should be directly involved in finding a solution. If these solutions do not provide suitable results, professional help may need to be sought in order to help reinforce positive habits.

As a child ages, and progresses into adulthood, they should have daily opportunities to work with their community. Whether they work with the public in their first job, or join extracurricular social clubs, these outlets provide various openings for social development. Participating in community events, and working with the public, helps increase social awareness. Without that exposure, a slow subtraction of social respect may develop. This decline may start a downward movement to making questionable life decisions. When a young person does not feel supported, and has limited exposure to peers and social outlets, they are left only with indirect exposure from media content, and other potentially negative stimuli. 

If beginning negative thinking patterns are not addressed, and redirected, often times a slow progression towards moral degradation occurs. This surpasses the concerns about environmental influences such as socio-economic barriers, cultural backgrounds, or which type of community the individual was raised in. While environmental influences certainly have an effect on an individual, these effects are not always negative. In fact, socio-economic challenges can sometimes be a motivating factor for future success, so long as the individual was raised in a safe, loving, compassionate home that consistently taught social values. Without establishing those basic patterns early on, environmental factors in the raising of a child can certainly lead to a future decline in morals, and personal ethics.

Modern societies must take a step backward if they want to move forward with building communities that have strong social values. In years past, families were a normal priority. Children were expected to participate in family planning, school activities, and extracurricular hobbies. Values were placed high on the list of expected behaviors. Communication among neighbors, parents, schools, and community leaders was constant. We must continue that trend if we hope to create a new future that is rooted in an ethical, value-based, way of life.