The Media And Their Influence On Teens

The media, including movies, television, video games, and more, is an extraordinarily prevalent entity in everyday life. Media displays many distorted images of real life, yet presents it as the ideal image of life. Those who watch the media are highly susceptible to forming false beliefs about what behavior trends are acceptable. Those who are most susceptible are children who are still forming schemas and experiencing schema accommodation; unfortunately, children between the ages of 2 and 11 watch television for an average of 28 hours a week (Calvert & Huston, 1987; Huston & Wright, 1996). Children are constantly reinforced and taught to follow gender roles, stereotypically classifying boys as macho and strong and girls as gentile and emotional. The purpose of this study is to further insight into the images popular media, specifically movies tailored to be enjoyed by children, shows to its viewers, specifically children.

Besides Photoshop, plastic surgery is a permanent way to change any physical characteristic. There are things one can change, without having to go through any knife or injection— the way they dress, hairstyles, and working out. When it comes to our image plastic surgery has provided an easy yet dangerous solution to fix what one considers their imperfection/ flaw. It is not only adults; teens are also getting cosmetic surgery which only is deteriorating the youth. Stated in the article Pretty Unreal, “Last year in the United States, more than 300,000 teens are 18 or younger had some sort of cosmetic surgery done” (Mehta, Sparling. 288). An increasing number of teens are getting cosmetic procedures done; plastic surgery has become common with in different age groups and families. Personally in my family I know many teens and adults that have gotten plastic surgery, liposuction, nose jobs, to butt jobs. I believe that teens my age should not be worrying about getting procedures done because there are many risks involved. Adolescence is taken away due to constantly worrying about physical image.

Mass media is part of the average persons everyday life, from morning to night; modern society absorbs and consumes it constantly. Adults are aware of it and see the media, as advertisements on television, the latest blockbuster at the theaters or the trendy new clothing. Children are not free from it either; they to are exposed to the medias imagery and ideals maybe more than adults are. Parents may not pay close attention to the media their children are exposed to; adults may think they are just harmless children’s toys or games. From the time they wake up and they pour themselves a bowl of brand name cereal, to the time they are put in bed with their stuff animal or toy, they are in the presence of some sort of media and its imagery.

Celebrities often change the perception of teenagers of how they should look. They portray this image that their value is based on their outward appearances and that they have to be thinner to be successful in life. If they are reserved and quiet they are boring, if they are loud and outspoken they are an attention seeker, if they are unique they are weird. It is difficult for them to then find a place to fit in in this world centered around outer beauty and the media’s idea of perfection. To them, thinness is idealised to be “attractive”. Standards of beauty of this have increased the teenagers’ desire to resolve to plastic surgery to fix their imperfections.

Adolescents are an interesting population to work with. A lot of social workers avoid working with them because they can be intimidating as the filter on them is limited depending on the young person you are working with. I have been working with teens since 2007 and I have never experienced one being like another. For the young people, there is a lot that influences who they are as a person. The biggest influence will be their parents followed by their friends. Aside from that, there is religion, school, T.V/media, ETC. When doing an assessment it is important to gather as much information as possible yet be aware that this age range has issues that are more pertinent to this age than other age ranges. The biggest ones are body image and sexuality.

As you’re walking down a street you may notice a young group of girls or women walking and they see a huge billboard of a beautiful model. They might stop and stare at her and then discuss about her perfect her body is. Not knowing in the next five minutes they’ll be comparing their bodies to the model and feeling bad about themselves wishing that they had her body. Not to mention, that the photo may be photoshopped to make it seem as her body is perfect, or she had plastic surgery to fit the idea of having the perfect body. The fact that the media thinks they’re encouraging young girls and women to embrace their beauty, they’re influencing them that they have to have a perfect body in order to get attention. The media has put a lot of pressure on young girls and women to look perfect and second guess their bodies, when plastic surgery is never the answer to build their self-esteem up.

Many girls have low self- esteem during their teen years when they start to grow into their “imperfect bodies”. Most girls start comparing and contrasting their bodies with other girls, so they start developing the thoughts of cosmetic procedures to maintain a high self- esteem. Sweeney (2009) argues that teens are seeking plastic surgery to look “normal” and feel “like a woman”. Even though most teen girls are not fully developed, they are eager to do some cosmetic procedures on themselves. Kristen of River Edge, N.J. said that she has been wanting breast implants since she started puberty. She felt uneven and unattractive because she grew curves but her breast did not grow along. Once she had the procedure done she felt “like a woman “ and her self-esteem

Plastic surgery is not a new field of medicine. Traditionally, plastic surgery dealt with fixing abnormalities of the body, but recently people are enjoying the luxury of plastic surgery simply because they are not happy with their appearance. People make appointments with plastic surgeons for procedures such as rhinoplasty, liposuction, tummy tucks, face lifts, and most commonly breast augmentation. These people look forward to desired results from such procedures without considering the risks. Many risks accompany plastic surgery, but they are rarely discussed in the media. Death is even a possible conclusion of the surgery. Why would people subject themselves to such conditions as having

The media has had an increasingly destructive effect on young people who are becoming worryingly obsessed with their body image. The media is saturated in sexual imagery in which young people have to face every day. The sheer volume of sexual imagery in the media today has resulted in the vast majority of young people to become hooked on looking as near to perfection everyday by using the latest products and buying the latest fashions. This used to be enough but lately the next step to achieving perfection is cosmetic surgery. Everyone wants to look attractive, especially teenagers who are not only put under massive strain to succeed but to look beautiful and climb the ranks of the social ladder, and it seems that the only way to achieve

According to an article by the Raising Children Network, “Your child’s body image is influenced by many factors. These factors include family environment, ability or disability, peer attitudes, the fashion industry, cultural background – and mainstream media, social media and advertising, if teenagers see unrealistic ‘thin’ or ‘muscly’ body types often enough, it can have an impact on their body image and dieting behavior. This is especially when there’s no-one to disagree with messages like ‘thin is beautiful’. Body image ideals in the media have increased teenagers’ desire for plastic surgery. For example, some teenage girls now want breast implants and laser hair removal, and some boys want soft tissue fillers (muscle enhancers)”( “Raising Children Network, Media Influence on Teenagers”). It’s true most teens will fall easily to peer pressure, but what’s even more true is that almost every teen in the world cares about how some part of their body looks. Whether its girls trying to look thinner, guys trying to get those movie star Hollywood actor super muscles, or a random teen wanting to improve how noticeable certain other aspects of their body are, the average teen will jump at any chance that the media depicts to make themselves look better in their minds

My hypothesis was that if adolescents are largely exposed to media; they will be affected it to a point where they learn and accept certain things about sex through it. Independent variables would be the extent to which adolescents are exposed to the media. The dependent variables were the ways in which adolescents were affected by the media. I used resources such as Gale and SIRS to look up articles related to my topic. Eventually, I went out and used the information from my articles to help create questions for my questionnaire and interview. To research my population I used these two methods of research: a questionnaire and interview. I conducted my research in Cocalico High School. I asked my SAT prep class, civics and government class,

Women of all ages are receiving cosmetic surgery as a cure for their unhappiness. Society no longer teaches women to embrace their flaws. Instead shows like The Real Housewives of Atlanta emphasize plastic surgery as they key to high self-esteem which will lead viewers to happiness. On one of the episodes Cynthia a main housewives was feeling down about the size of her breasts. This was causing her to feel depressed and insecure about her body. Fast forward two episodes later she received breast implants. After receiving them, she was portrayed to seem more confidence and happy. The show portrays the implants as the cure for her depression. “A 2003 study publishes in the Annals of Plastic Surgery shows women who had cosmetic breast implants were three times more likely than the general population to commit suicide”(mental health). This means the breast implants had a more negative psychological influence on women. When one is contemplating whether or not to receive cosmetic work they must make sure there’s not a deeper reason “Researchers found strong evidence that women with mental health issues were more likely to choose surgery: more had a history of psychological problem including depression anxiety” (mental health). In other words women who have more psychological problems proceeded cosmetic surgery. This is because of shows like The Real Housewives of Atlanta that present it as an easy cure for depression. Viewer who are watching must remember the show is just that, a

Teenagers spend hours everyday watching television, checking social media and more. Everyone says that these actions will rot your brain and cause bad grades. The thing no one over considers is the effect media has on teen food choice. Keep reading to learn some of the ways that media can be an affect.

At the end of the 80 's, the first plastic surgery was carried to our knowledge and has been an outlet for those people unsure of their physique. Since plastic surgeries became a trend, ceasing to be an exclusive practice of actors, actresses, and celebrities, and becoming a trend in people of different socioeconomic groups. Its consumption has spread to all social classes. Acceptance, glamour and better self-esteem, are some of the reasons why people have cosmetic surgery.

As far back as at least the 50s, there have been people outraged by violence in the media. Whether in video games, books, radio, music, or television, there is always someone or something to blame for the violence. Violence is everywhere in the media , there is no disagreeing with that. Whether it be movies, television, video games, or music, there will always be violence, but blaming it on movies, television, video games, or music is not the answer. If blame needs to be placed why are the parent of the children who choose to commit acts of violence not being blamed. It never seems to be the fault of the person who caused the violence, but rather, people look for a scapegoat to blame. Some would say the effects of media can be