Into the Kultursmog

I would like to think that one day I will have children. It is a pleasant thought but I don’t dwell on the subject too often, A) because I don’t want to freak my boyfriend out and B) because I don’t want to panic about the fact I would have to raise my child in a style different from my own upbringing (which I consider to be pretty fantastic).

In a world filled with so much information, media, and junk food how can I protect them from growing so fast that they overshoot the greatest parts about being a kid, and more importantly to what extent should I protect them? To better explain what I mean, here is what Rod Dreher has to say on the topic:
“I find it hard to work up much outrage over this or that aspect of pop culture
anymore. It's just a constant low-grade depression, like a hangover headache you
can't ever get rid of. It's like the whole culture lives under fluorescent light. Like there's a pervasive Kultursmog everywhere (the term originated with R. Emmett Tyrrell, as far as I can tell). This is what we're raising our kids in.”

Kultursmog. I like it. That description perfectly encapsulates my feelings about the junk food of popular culture. In my hypothetical future, I would like to teach my kids to navigate and examine what is presented to them on television. I want them to breathe clean air before they have to breathe Kultursmog.

Only problem that arises with this is that I don’t want to raise him/her in a completely sterile environment. I grew up with television and I don’t think I am too odd. Plus, I don't want my children to be treated as weird creatures from Planet Conservo just because I don’t let them watch MTV or let them cake on the makeup before they’re in high school.

This is an important topic to me. Through independent research I have discovered repeatedly, the invasive and creepy ways marketers have infiltrated the adolescent mind, to the extent where the clutter of media information is so thick even parents have a hard time breaking through. The goal of all of this is bring light to the ways media has strategically navigated past their boundaries, and hopefully though this, we will be able to learn how to break through the Kultursmog.