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.
In this article I was able to learn how this topic related to your life personally, how your research has shown you new information and how you see these effcts even in your own life. I agree that the media has placed many sterotypes on teenagers and those will not be going away anytime soon. I would like to know if there was a study done on professors and how they really felt about sorority girls and if they judged them differently because of that.I felt like you were able to integrate your real life situations with your research and you were able to explain what type of question that you were trying to answer even without already knowing the question previously. If I could make one suggestion it would be that you would focus on the sorority stereotype because I feel like you could really find a lot of information on that and a lot of knowledge could be gained.
ReplyDelete-Kalin Sherrin
Through this entry I was able to learn that this topic is directly related to you and you have had your own bouts of personal experience. A suggestion I would make is since you are in a sorority, maybe go into a study or some research someone has done that could back you up (even though I absolutely agree with what you said about the dirty looks!). Because you are directly involved with your topic, I think you may have a biased opinion to start with and I am interested to see what you may find on the opposing side through the research process.
ReplyDelete-Kaitlynn