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Effect of media in teenagers
Impact of media in adolescents
Effect of media in teenagers
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The media plays an increasing role in any young person’s life, but it is especially important to teens in their high school years. Research has demonstrated that teenagers “voice concerns and attitudes that echo themes common in media messages, and that they behave in ways that reflect media content” (Feldman 245). The concern is that the sexually suggestive media is the reason for the increase of sexual activity among high school teens. The media messages that are known to increase a teenagers’ sexual behavior come from all different angles, such as sexually explicit music lyrics to the “sex sells” philosophy of countless main stream commercials. “Teens typically spend about 6 to 8 hours of their time awake [each day] with some type of media” (Overmier 1) and out of that time, they spend from 2 to 4 hours watching television programs. Two to four hours of their time seems like nothing compared to all the other time in the day, so how much harm could their favorite television shows do? “Sexually related talk and behavior occurs from eight to ten times per hour in prime-time programming” (Brown, Steele, and Walsh-Childers 60) and that is without counting all those sexually suggestive commercials during the breaks. In January 2000, when the Mercedes Benz company was advertising to sell their new E-Class 4Matic car model, their commercial did not show the television viewers any of the innovative features of the car. Instead, Mercedes displayed a woman beginning to have sex with her lover as she told him that she was not expecting her husband in such horrible weather, and then showing her husband driving in the terrible weather to his mistress’s house. In a recent study, a teen named Arizona said that high schoolers let themselves... ... middle of paper ... ...ual activity, there are teens who are easily “seduced and model their developing sexual lives on the frequently unhealthy sexual media content they consume” (Brown, Steele, and Walsh-Childers 18). Teenagers look up to the people in the media as role models, and if their role models are going around as if sex was an everyday thing, they will think sex is something they should partake in. If “16 percent of female and 12 percent of male [teens] had sex four or more times in the past month” (Abma 1), what can be expected in the next month as high school teens use more and more media and the media continues to be sexual? The fact of the matter is that “teens with the highest level of sexual content exposure are 2.2 times more likely to have initiated sexual intercourse” (Lagorio) than other high school adolescents with little to no exposure to the sexual media content.
“In 2005, out of 68% of TV shows that showed steamy sexual content, only 15% discussed risk and responsibility. And it’s not just movies and TV: Music, video games, and the Internet are also filled with sexually explicit, often-degrading messages that can shape kids’ attitudes about sex.” (greatschools.org)
...ers, Kim. Sexual Teens, Sexual Media: Investigating Media’s Influence on Adolescent Sexuality. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002.
Today’s young Americans face strong peer pressure to be sexually active and engage themselves in risky behaviors (Merino 100-109). Anyone deciding to have sex must first think about all the risks involved. Kekla Magoon, author of Sex Education in Schools, says that “half of all teens aged 15 to 19 years old in the United States have had sex” (Magoon 64-65). It is currently not required by federal law for schools to teach Sex education and those few schools that do teach Sex education have the decision to determine how much information is allowed. Advocates from both sides of the Sex education debate agree that teens need positive influences in order to make practical decisions (Magoon 88-89). Opponents of Abstinence-only education believe it fails because it does not prepare teens for all the risks of sex (Magoon 64-65).
“Selling sex is illegal, but using it to promote economic growth is not.” (Sexualization and Sexploitation of Women in the Media; Rosery Films) What actually happened to our culture, people wondered? Has advertising gone too far? And are we being corrupted by sex? According Sex in advertising: Perspectives on the Erotic Appeal, in 2005, approximately one-fifth of all advertising used overt sexual content to sell its product. Society’s interest with sex and the advertising designer’s acceptance of it as an effective tool have served each other for the course of the twentieth century. And has always been separated on the extents to which sexuality can and should be used to sell. Advertising has become the single largest source of visual imagery in our social society. No matter where we look, we see advertisements trying to sell us things. Provocative advertising has been characterized as a deliberate attempt to gain attention through shock. (De Pelsmacker & Van Den Bergh, 1996) In 2007, The American Psychological Association sent out a press release to the media stressing the harmful effects of sexualizing our youth: “The proliferation of sexualized images of girls and young women in advertising, merchandisin...
We may think of sex as a passionate way of showing one’s life-long partner one’s love, or as a means of satisfying oneself, but in the recent years we have grown accustomed to the idea of casual sex becoming the norm. As a result, the once scandalous sexualized ads of the early and mid-1900s have become so common that Kilbourne claims that these ads contribute to our current rape culture and to the objectification of women and children.
Arthur’s e-book offers honest facts about the influences on the instruction of sexuality on tv. She discusses how the digital revolution was one of the main agents for sparking publicized sexuality. She than discusses the different theories that people have including feminist theories. She closes her discussion with sexual citizenship in the digital age. She differentiates between the sexual citizen and the sexual consumer by explaining the issues behind the negative issues it causes.
"Children are influenced by media–they learn by observing, imitating, and making behaviors their own" (APA, 2001, p.1224). Girl’s as young as 4-years sees Britney Spears music clip “Baby One More Time”, who at the time was a 17-year old girl/world pop icon at the time wearing a school uniform showing off her midriff, wearing a lot of makeup and a short skirt. Disney teen icons such as Miley Cyrus aka Hannah Montana taking personal photos of herself in “sexy” poses and sending it to her ‘older’ boyfriend and then having it all published all over the internet for the entire world to see. Boys also face sexualization too, as has been seen in Calvin Klein ads, where pubescent-looking boys pose provocatively with perfectly sculpted six-pack abs hawking teen fashion These pop culture celebrities both female and male are always in the media, for inappropriate actions and they’re meant to be role models for children. In fact most of these sexualized celebrities are still children themselves. The sad part is it’s not just sexualization being encouraged in the media other negative things such as violence, drug and alcohol use ...
A statistic from the same research shows that in the typical television show there are more than three sexual related scenes per hour. As it is said in the introduction of the report the average teenager is spending more than twenty hours per week in watching television (Nielsen, 1998), so this is why television programs are influencing mostly on younger viewers.
Research Questions and/or Hypotheses The research question and basis of the study can be summarized as whether or not the exposure to sexual concepts through the media have significant influences on the sexual practices of teenagers. Similarly, it is proposed that, if proven to be accurate, media can be used in similar formats to encourage safe sex and preventative sexual health practices. The use of focus groups, journal writings, room tours, and interviews allowed teens the opportunity to discuss sexuality which was operationalized as teen views on love, sex, and relationships. Steele, 1999, p. 334.
The media has changed significantly over the past decades. Technology has modified our abilities to expand our communication network, and it allows companies to spread their commercials over many different continents. Research done by Roberts (1993) shows that adolescent and children are often very influenced by media that involves sexual or violent conduct. This research is based on media involving children and adolescents, however this does not eliminate the effect media has on adults (Singer & Singer, 2001, p. 269).
In today’s world, advertising reaches and influences teens in both negative and positive ways. Teens are bombarded with ads through television, teen magazines, radio, and the internet. Advertisers know teen’s buying power and their willingness to spend their money. Many companies even hire teens to be “consultants” and trendspotters. They want to know what teens are thinking and their likes and dislikes. Some feel this is a good thing and that teens are letting companies know what they want. On the other hand, many believe all this advertising to teens has a negative impact on them. Ads show models with “perfect” bodies. “Every year, the average adolescent sees over 5,000 advertisements mentioning attractiveness” (Haugen). Some feel this leads to teens having low self-esteem, while others argue that it does not have an effect. These people believe teens have the power and control in the advertising world.
Teenage girls are at an impressionable time in their lives. Mass media is a key part of one of the factors of socialization that become important to teenagers. Teenagers look to the media for entertainment. Whether it is movies, magazines, or even some aspects of social media, teenagers get a lot of influence from the media’s message. The problem with this is the media has a specific way of doing things and can be negative to a susceptible teenage girl.
Media has been filled with exaggerated scrutinies and trashed with unreasonable criticisms. It deserves a break. This is the generation of Information Technology. Danger is just around the corner, where a click from a mouse or a remote control and all sex-related garbage can pop out of the monitor. Truly, a vulnerable teenager can easily get lost to temptations. As an adolescent, I can empathize how these sweet girls feel about how horrible their body shapes are, how ugly their face is, and how brands in fashion seem to be worth more than anything in the world. Fashion labels, tiny bodies, and sexual activities are all characterized in Sex and the City. From th...
Sexually active youths tend to be more exposure to media than any other members of society. The reason behind that is because they are in charge of their own time without much interference from their parents and burdensome responsibilities. This, combined with the fact that both implicit and explicit sexual content and crime in the mass media has grown over time predisposes youths to premarital sex (Rosengren, 2000).
Rates of sexually transmitted disease and teen pregnancy are higher in the United States than in any other domesticated country. Not surprising since American culture has brought sex to the forefront over the last few decades. The need for comprehensive sex education in schools can teach children that the romanticized relationships and sexual interactions in the media aren’t showing the whole story. For children with ...