Television and its Impact on Teenagers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Television and its Impact on Teenagers - Essay precedentTelevision sells, and it not only sells advertising, it sells ideas. The teenage mind is at a stage where it is open to new-made ideas, experimentation, and is easily swayed by a sense of status through images. Teenagers, often alienated by their p arnts and the educational system, seek an identity and want to be a part of a reference or in-group. Teenagers impart copy what they catch on television system and the media industry should be pro-active in monitoring all their scheduling, measurement its social impact, and assuring that it is fit for all viewers, and especially teenagers.When we consider what a teenager may get by from television and incorporate into their own life, sex immediately comes to mind. If the teenager feels disconnected from society, or neglected and unloved, they be in a prime position to seek out inappropriate sex. When television romanticizes sex in the midst of 13 year olds, the child will be led to believe that this action will adopt them status and love. A study by Brown et al. found that regular viewing of sex on television, accelerates white adolescents sexual activity and increases their risk of engaging in early sexual intercourse (1018). It would be irresponsible to encourage a young teenage girl to stand sex in each other setting or format. Yet, it is routinely done on television. The industry must self-regulate the television programming and reduce the exposure that young teens have to sexual content.Drugs are another subject that the media inappropriately presents to teenagers, which encourages them to experiment. Often, television portrays drugs in a positive light and fails to show the tragic consequences that accompany drug use. Teenagers learn which drugs are available, where to get them, and how to use them. Television has essentially become a drug education program. Studies have shown that in that respect has been an increase in movies that portray dr ug use as a relatively common and untroubled behavior among teen characters in teen-centered films (Stern 342). Teenagers copy this behavior while assuming they will have the kindred outcome as the characters in the film. In fact, the media industry could show drug use among teens in a more negative context with a more realistic outcome. This could lessen teenagers misguided view of the consequences of utilise drugs.Sex and drugs are activities that an average teenager may engage in with or without the encouragement of television, exactly force-out is something that most teens intrinsically avoid. Yet, television programming has the power to desensitize a teenagers mind to violence and make it more acceptable. As teens view a barrage of violence against women, society, and acquaintances on television, they begin to view this as normal behavior. It is commonly accepted that violence, especially in childrens television programming, has escalated in recent years, and the results h ave been disastrous. A large-scale and long-term study reported by Browne and Hamilton-Giachritsis found a loaded association between increased viewing of television violence and the likelihood of subsequent antisocial behaviour, such as threatening aggression, assault or physical fights resulting in injury, and robbery (703). While we may be able to get a teenager off drugs, or encourage them to curtail their sexual activity, godforsaken tendencies are deeply ingrained into the