I consider myself to be a rather grounded person, to be at least a halfway decent person. I try to take into consideration others when making decisions, help little old ladies cross the street, and just be a good person in general. A model citizen, right? Except wait, I’m seventeen. An angry, irresponsible, teen who is not to be trusted. Why on earth would I be a good Samaritan when I could be flaunting my panoply of hormone induced shenanigans around like it was 1969? Two reasons. One, because I want to, I enjoy helping people believe it or not. Two, to prove everyone wrong. Less noble I am aware. But I feel something must be done to combat the growing cloud of negativity that continues to envelope the mere notion of teenagers. The general consensus about teenagers nowadays is they are reckless, irresponsible individuals who enjoy illegal substances recreationally, explore and display their sexuality to young and vibrantly, and possess little to no respect for others. But I don’t believe this idea is true; I don’t see myself in any of these descriptions. Nor do I see my peers. Sure I have a boyfriend and may have been grounded at some moments in my life but I am not the degenerate society plays me out to be. I suppose the question now is: where did these ideas come from? Why The Media of course!
The Media; defined as the mass communication through resources such as newspapers, radio, the internet, and television; has been a massive influence on the world for decades. Informing folks about the on goings of the universe and slyly instructing them on what and how to think. A popular topic to portray is teenagers. Aged thirteen to eighteen. A gold mine for high ratings, views, listeners, and subscriptions. Newspapers produce articles on bullying and crime sprees, and graphs on the rise and fall of teen pregnancy. There are countless blogs run by mothers attempting to help other unfortunate parents try to understand their unresponsive child. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent warns that the average age for use of marijuana is fourteen, and that of alcohol is twelve for this generation. Far too many television shows highlight he secrecy of teen life, with the drugs and the sex and the disregard for a future ahem *cough* The Secret Life of the American Teenager. New age pop artists pollution of the radio with songs that display messages such as “I eat my dinner in my bathtub/ then I go to sex clubs/… I gotta stay high all the time/ to forget I’m missing you babe.” (a colorful excerpt from Tove Lo’s Habits (Stay High). Really? This is what is imagined when the word teenager is uttered?. Alcohol has only passed through my lips once, at my aunt’s wedding when I mistook champagne for apple juice, when I was three.
The thing is, stereotypes have to originate from somewhere. I admit, members of my age group are guilty of these accusations. I have peers, friends, who have experienced the, uhh, finer, aspects of life. Teenagers do drink and take(?) drugs, have sex and act stupid. But it’s only because that’s how they are told to behave. The media has a strange way of shaping reality, even though it is only mimicking real life. For the sake of making sense, I’ll explain this is terms of our topic. A preteen sits down and watches the boob toube, let’s say one of those awful Degrassi shows is airing. And although faker than Josie Cunningham’s upper half, everything occurring in the show is believed to be reality by the gullible preteen. Who then enters the young adult stage with false ideas and then acts accordingly. I was no better. I always thought teenagers hung out around the pool or had massive beach bonfires until the cops came and busted everyone for drugs, sex, and rock and roll, then the parents would all bail their kids out of jail and instead of getting on their knees and pleading for forgiveness from the loving parents; the protagonist you adult would yell profanically at the guardians, claiming to hate them, and proceed to sneak out in the middle of the night to “make love” to their significant other. And probably the girls going to get pregnant. As a ten-year-old this is honestly what I thought teens did. And I still kind of do.
The media is affecting the way teenagers think and act. It tells us what we have to do to be normal and fit in. But in order to fit in we have to be alcoholic drug smugglers from Antarctica who have eight kids. At least, that’s the message I see when it comes down to it. I don’t want to shape the way I see myself based off of something that is supposed to be based off of me. It’s time for a change. It’s time to revolt against adolescent stereotypes.
Putney Mediates the Media 
What I did while reading your post was take notes, not that it’s anything special, but I’m going to list what i jotted down for organizational purposes:
– overcoming the boxes you’ve already been placed in
– why do you feel like you have something to prove? what sparked you?
– why capitalize the word “media”?
– good to acknowledge the flaws that our generation has, shows your awareness
– agree with gullible teenagers watching those shows and its effects (significance and purpose of Nick, TeenNick, and Nick@Nite)
– “still kind of do.”
– don’t be shaped, be the shaper
To sum up my notes, I see how mass media has, over time, sculpted the image(s) of modern teenage students. What I really was attentive to was when you said that you still kind of feel that your perception of teenagers given to you by media still resonates with you even though you are grounded and well aware of what is happening. Why does this stick with you? Is it because you know that it exists? And with that said is the media even doing anything wrong by portraying what they know teenagers are like? Or is the media not doing a good job of displaying a balance in what it feeds to audience? For instance, I don’t know of many shows where the protagonist is a well-rounded student that genuinely wants to help others and has a nice head on his or her shoulders (like yourself). I, too, agree with you. Isn’t it weird that we are actually questioning our reality because media has fed us differently?
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I agree with your general premiss, it is important that teens are able to break out the the prisms that the media has created around them. I found it interesting your take of the self fulfilling prophecy where teens act stupid thus the media portrays them as stupid that that make teens feel like what they are doing is what is expected of them. This is a vicious cycle that you do a good job of analyzing.
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I can totally hear your voice reading this!
I understand and/or agree with everything you have said, but I would like to question one thing (not because I belive it, but because I thought of the question). “Teenagers do drink and take(?) drugs, have sex and act stupid. But it’s only because that’s how they are told to behave.” I think this is a statement of generalzation in an argument against genralzation. How can we know that without the influnces of modern media teens wouldn’t be rolling around the roses? (Romeo and Juliet, or any historical romance ever)… could there be some inherent part of this part of life that makes a teen act they way they do? (All of this coming from a kid who also can’t answer the “take (?)” question.) I think we all want to be the teenagers we thought were cool, but when that gets disencahnted, maybe some people take the highroad and others take their own…
My spell check is broken/wants my money… sorry
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