Analysis Of Gossip Girl

Television is the form of media with the largest target audience as it contains shows, and movies that appeal to people of all age groups. The portrayal of teens in any form of media is tainted, but television is the worst of all media forms in regards to the way teenage behavior is portrayed. “The portrait that society has painted of the average teenager is flawed, displaying unrealistic stereotypes that have become too universally accepted.” (Syed, Sania. The Princeton Summer Journal) The television series “Gossip Girl” is novel based and revolves around a group of snobby, privileged, prep school students that live in the Upper East Side of New York. These teens travel, attend social events, shop at high-end stores, and basically do

The lives lived in Gossip Girl are fictional beyond belief and extremely unrealistic. This series as books was not an issue. It wasn’t until the image was plastered on a TV screen that it became an inaccurate representation of teenagers. There’s something about television that makes things seem more “real”. Real life teens spend time questioning themselves wishing their life was like the girls on Gossip Girl feeling as though they’re missing out due to the fact that they don’t get to drink chardonnay or eat macaroons everyday of their life. “Whoever said money doesn’t buy happiness doesn’t know where to shop” said Blair Waldorf, a main character of the series. This demonstrates the image of being spoiled and rich as the

By exposing the flourishing mind of a teenager to unrealistic norms, television is molding the mind to develop impractical expectations. In the media teenagers are often times portrayed as party crazy, sex-addict, drop outs when realistically the number of students that live up to this image is quite low. When being exposed to a television culture of students that party non-stop, travel, and par-take in activities most don’t it gives the very hormonal mind of a teenager something known as “the fear of missing out”. When watching other teens on television focus on anything but school it gets teenagers wondering why they aren’t doing the same, giving them the feeling that they are missing out on things in life. As teenagers the job is to go to school to prepare for college and then the fun will come, but whilst being exposed to high school students that drink, smoke, skip school and still “get by” it gets teens thinking why they can’t do the same. This unrealistic ideology stems from the inaccurate portrayal of teens in the media. We are not exposed to the average teens yet the small fraction of teens with extremely financially inclined parents. This is not a realistic