MEDIA'S INFLUENCE ON THE YOUTH By Hailey Hechtman ( 13 y/o - Newmarket - Ontario - Canada ) June 01, 2003   Television, Movies, Magazine and Music Video's are some of the many ways today's young adults are influenced. By creating an image appealing to teens the media and its multiple division's control the variety of material teens incorporate in their daily lives. Teens allow themselves to follow along the trends because of their quest of self-affirmation and discovery. This is the reason style is directed towards adolescents for their vulnerability and desires to, "fit in." In the past year, the media, its entertainment industries and fashion designers have created an image containing a more negative look for our youth occupying sexuality, violence, coarser language and revealing clothing. It is this distinctive style that has parents, teachers and even some young adults worried. Music Videos and Lyrics imply that teens, especially female teens should feel free to be sexually active and expose such great amounts of skin are working and sex is becoming the style at a young age. Girls as young as 13 are increasingly adding to the amount of younger pregnancies because of such effective media influences. Not only is the media encouraging sexual promiscuity they are influential to the degrading of women in their videos. Such images as half clothed women dancing wet on bars, to women bathing men in disclosed bikinis. Does this sound right? Why is the media convincing teens that this is life? Then to coarse language or swearing is another threatening issue in today's society. Children as early as the age of 6 are unnaturally effected by this topic and usage of inappropriate language is becoming an outlet for aggravated teens and kids. The current style of clothing and of makeup is both revealing and overdone, which in the 70's would have been viewed as prostitution. Definitely not expectable! Clothing such as hip-huggers and low-rider jeans not only effect people's perception on your individualism but also even take responsibly for health issues. In resent studies, doctors and chiropractors detected more that more of their patients encountering back problems where women who in fact would wear low, tight jeans. After all the negative points about the media in this one article I do have a few positive remarks in behalf of the media. "Smoking kills", "Don't drink and Drive", "Don't do Drugs" and The Kids Help Phone are some of the many ways that help today's youth learn of the consequences of misbehavior that can kill.   I leave you only with a message from a Kids Help Phone poster: " because homosexuality, suicide and ecstasy are not usually what comes up around the dinner table."   Print this article

 

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