We are living in the 21
st century-century of technologies and information. Every day we are bombarded with information through different types of media, beginning from the radio and ending with the Internet. There is various information out there uncontrolled and with free access. People are constantly using different mediums for educational, entertaining or informational purposes.
Unfortunately, this information era has impacts on adolescent society. More and more teens are using various technologies in order to stay in touch, be informed and educated. As we all are concerned, there are too much sexual content in the media. To be specific there are many TV channels and programs with too much sex in them; video clips, advertisements and magazine covers are showing sexually explicit images of women and those mediums are pushing adolescents to have early sexual intercourse, forming their way of thinking, perceiving women as sex objects and finally having eating disorders in order to be as perfect as they see in the media.
In order to abolish opposed argument I will provide recent study result about those particular mediums. Across the globe television is most popular and utilizable medium. On one hand television can be helpful, educational and entertaining, however, on the other hand it can have opposite effects. Television devices are playing a big role in everyone’s lives. At least one TV set is in each house across the world, and each day people are spending enormous time in front of it. According to Nielsen study average American TV viewer is spending more than 151 hours per month watching television, meaning that they are mostly spending their free time in front of it.
As said by one report "The average American youth spends one-third of each day with various forms of mass media, mostly without parental oversight." This leads to watching whatever they want, even those programs, movies, or TV channels that are not supposed for their age. Therefore, teenagers and high-school students have earlier sexual intercourse and many of them get pregnant in their middle teens. Teenage pregnancy is number one concern in United States these days, having the highest rate in developed world.
Another brain-washing medium of our mind is advertising. Advertising is everywhere: radio, highways, streets, transportation vehicles, television and the Internet are all covered in them. Each day at least one new ad is posted everywhere at it’s becoming unavoidable. To a great extent advertising companies are
using subliminal messages and sexually explicit images of women in order to sell their products. There is no doubt that sex in advertisement sells, but there should be some boundaries.
In current study by Teen People magazine, 27% of the females considered that the media forces them to have an ideal body. Scholars propose that advertising medium can harmfully affect girl’s body image, which might guide to harmful actions because females struggle to have that figure as it is admired by the media. Recently advertising similes blamed for using impossible pictures of men, and males as well are starting to do everything in order to be the equal to those “models.”
Those idealistic images are lowering self-evaluation among women. Girls stated in a Body Image Survey that "very thin" models engender a feeling of lack of confidence. Unfortunately, no one really knows what causes anorexia or bulimia among teenager; however, there are several theories. The majority who develop an eating disorder are among 14 and 18 years-old. Those years are exactly a period of maturity and puberty, when body needs a lot of vitamins and food in order to be healthy. Inversely, adolesc
ents are on diets constantly and develop some kind of eating disorders.
Action is required instead of only talking about this subject. Restrictions should be made in every kind of media, in order to prevent teenagers from side effects. Boundaries of norms should be set in advertising business, in order not to be driven into their traps. I wish those words had power, power to do something to change the world perception. Unfortunately, those words will remain as simple, weak and insignificant as other words written about this particular topic.
References
"Eating Disorders: Body Image and Advertising - HealthyPlace."
HealthyPlace.com - Trusted Mental Health Information and Support - HealthyPlace. 11 Dec. 2008. Web. 22 Apr. 2010.
"Teen Pregnancy Rates In The USA | LIVESTRONG.COM."
LIVESTRONG.COM - Health, Fitness, Lifestyle | LIVESTRONG.COM. 18 Nov. 2009. Web. 23 Apr. 2010.
"What Causes Anorexia and Bulimia in Teens? - HealthyPlace."
HealthyPlace.com - Trusted Mental Health Information and Support - HealthyPlace. 11 Jan. 2009. Web. 23 Apr. 2010.
Brown, Jane D., Kelly Ladin L'Engle, Carol J. Pardun, and Kristin Kenneavy. "Sexy Media Matter: Exposure to Sexual Content in Music, Movies, Television, and Magazines Predicts Black and White Adolescents' Sexual Behavior -- Brown Et Al. 117 (4): 1018 -- Pediatrics."
AAP - Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. 3 Apr. 2006. Web. 22 Apr. 2010
Gandossy, Taylor. "TV Viewing at 'all-time High,' Nielsen Says - CNN.com."
CNN.com International - Breaking, World, Business, Sports, Entertainment and Video News. 24 Feb. 2009. Web. 24 Apr. 2010
