Teenager Stereotypes Essay

Many people are negatively labelling this current generation of teenagers due to stereotypes depicted in the media. Is this portrayal rational or unfair?

According to research conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, children aged eight to eighteen spend four and a half hours a day watching television.1 Many of the programmes these teenagers are watching can be seen to be normalising stereotypes, for example: there are the nerds, such as Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory; there are the beautiful popular ones like the Pretty Little Liars; and there are the rebels like Jenny Humphrey from Gossip Girl. 2 This is wrong, and is pressuring teenagers into the counterfeit concept of perfection. Consequently, there are an increased number

of teenagers with negative body images resulting in a rise of the number of teenagers with eating disorders. Furthermore, in an article written by James Kirkup from The Telegraph it states, “Media images that depict ultra-thin digitally altered women models are linked to body dissatisfaction and unhealthy eating in girls and women”. 3 In addition to this many Liberal Democrats believe that all airbrushed images should be banned from the media in order to protect teenagers’ health and self-esteem. 3 Overall this shows that the media is coaxing teenagers into a particular way of life as well as also portraying them in a negative light.

In opposition to this, some people believe that teenagers are not unfairly represented in the media and that they bring this negative portrayal upon themselves. In research conducted by The Home Office it can be seen that 23% of crimes in England and Wales in 2009/2010 were committed by under-18s, this equates to over a million crimes in the short space of twelve months.4 In addition to this in 2010 for every 100,000 teenagers (aged between 10 and 17) there were 225 arrests for acts of violent crime.5 Both of these statistics depict teenagers as being pugnacious scourges, therefore it can be said that teenagers are not unfairly represented in the media, the news stories of brutality are fact. Moreover, in an article in The Telegraph it specifies that teenagers spend 27 hours online a week.6 This shows that they are wilfully exposing themselves to the media around them and are consequently succumbing to peer-pressure so that they are able to be more amiable and fit in better in this modern world. Overall this shows that teenagers are being fairly represented in the media and are not being unjustly portrayed.

Conversely, many people believe that these unjust stereotypes and generalisations are causing further issues for teenagers.

For example, in an article on the BBC News website it states that “four to five teens felt that they were unfairly represented in the media and, of these a vast majority – 85% said this was affecting their chances of getting a job.” 7 Despite this, in an article on the ITV News website it states that teenagers “would not turn to their local MP to resolve issues in their local community, revealing a belief that traditional politics was not the most effective way of dealing with concerns”. 8 This is further accentuated in an article in The Independent where the head of the report, Jonathon Birdwell said: “People think of teenagers as apathetic, lazy and self-centred, with a sense of entitlement…but more young people are volunteering in the community…the most common words used by teachers to describe them in our survey were ‘caring’, ‘hardworking’ and ‘enthusiastic’.” 9 Overall this shows that the use of stereotypes and generalisations in relation to teenagers should be stopped, as it is demeaning and effecting their future.

In conclusion, I believe that teenagers are being unfairly represented in the media. This needs to be stopped. It is not ‘ok’ to judge people you don’t know and have never met just because of a negative stereotype. Prejudice is not

‘ok’.