Blog 2- Draft 2

The media portrays teens as mischievous, mean, and sexual alcoholics. As a teen, I feel as though I can’t create my own identity because it has been created for me. I’m away at college, 400 miles away from any familiarity. My parents assume when I say “I went over my friend’s house last night,” that I was drinking or it was some party, when in reality it wasn’t. I’m in a sorority and the stereotype will never go away. I may be biased, but we do a great service to the community by working with our philanthropy and raising money constantly. When I wear letters, I get dirty looks, not only by students but by professors sometimes, “just another dumb sorority girl.” My identity as a teenager has been created for me as well as the billions of other teenagers in the United States and my identity as a sorority girl has been created for me, with no chance of changing it.

                “Teens who see and hear a lot about sex in the media may be more than twice as likely to have early sexual intercourse as those who are rarely exposed to sexual content” (Media may prompt teen sex). Most movies now-a-days have some type of sexual content in it; it’s unavoidable. Most teens see these acts in movies and shows and hear it in the lyrics of a song almost on a regular basis. A study published by the American Association of Pediatrics showed that teens exposed to sexual content from ages 12 to 14 were more at risk for early teen sex despite the disapproval of their parents.

                I hear parents say, “I remember when my daughter/son was a teenager. Never want to go back there!” Are teens really that bad? Does the media make adolescents act a certain way? Do parents see these things in the media and assume they’re child is doing it too? The media seems to be at fault, according to “Teen Health and the Media.” “Ads for alcohol run rampant during some of the television’s most popular programming.” Budweiser manufacturers spent over $20 million on elven commercials during the 2003 Super Bowl. A study found that 32% of 15 to 17 year olds sexual decisions were influenced by the media.

Blog 1- Draft 2

          “How does the media portray teenagers and how does it affect them?” We have all seen movies where teenagers are drinking, engaging in promiscuous activities, using drugs, disobeying their parents and lots more. I became interested in this topic because of the article entitled “The Media made them do It” and “The Media made me do it.” I was shocked at the things I read that people did because they saw it on television or in a movie. I was astounded at the fact that anyone would set a baby’s crib on fire because it was in a movie or jump off the top of a waterfall, only to plummet to their death. It just seemed so crazy.

                I wanted to see different perspectives. I thought for sure not everyone believes all teens are portrayed as horrible, disrespectful human beings. I wanted personal opinions and thoughts, from interviews with teens and adults, as well as professional statements like that of the American Association of Pediatrics. I was expecting to find differing opinions- some people believing the media portrays teens as the world’s worst age group and actually considering that to be true and some thinking it’s a false accusation.

                I wondered where people got the idea to include teens drinking, abusing substances, and having sex, in the media. Do movie writers include teenage drinking, substance abuse, and sex, because they see and hear about teens doing it or do teens do it because they see on a screen or in a magazine? Not all teens drink on Friday and Saturday nights; not all teenagers engage in promiscuity; not all are aggressive; not every kid in middle school, high school, or college smoke weed or abuse any other substance. The media seems to generalize, creating an image in the minds of adults when they hear the word “teenager” or “adolescent.”

                I had an experience in high school with a group of girls, none of which were very heavy, who stopped eating because of the models they saw on a television show one night. One girl passed out at the gym and was rushed to the hospital where she was found to be under weight for her height. Personally, I have never had experiences with doing things I see on television or in movies or hear in a song, but other people have.