Debbie CollerEnglish 1004Professor: John WhiteMedia and Advertisement:The New Peer Pressure The media has a huge impact on teenagers. Teens rely on media for information on everything from communication,latest fashion trends, places to eat,their favorite music, and just keeping up with the rest of the world. Media has become an integral part of their lives and is utilized on a daily basis.Whether it is watching TV, reading magazines and newspapers, sur?ng the web, listening to music,they are all ways that the media is used to keep updated on the latest trends.With the growing age of technology,the media has become much more accessible and companies are using the media to reach target audiences such as young people, mainly teenagers through advertisements. This exposure to advertisements can have a negative impact on teens. Teenagers are at a very impressionable age and are searching for an identity.They are very vulnerable to the in?uence of peer pressure and they have an immature understanding of the media. Some teenagers have a hard time feeling secure in their body and they just want to ?t in and be accepted. A lot of teens are still adjusting to new schools as they are transitioning from elementary schools. They are going through hormonal changes as their bodies are growing and changing from adolescents to early adulthood. This is when their insecurities with their body image is heightened. Companies are aware of
Debbie CollerEnglish 1004Professor: John Whitethis and prey upon their insecurities. Boys and girls alike are highly sensitive to body images.Teens are bombarded with tons of advertisements that contain messages portraying physical attractiveness and being beautiful for example commercials for the latest fashions, the best make-up lines, weight loss proceedures and other cosmetic alterations and ?tness promotions. Many advertisements do not show people in a realistic way, women are shown thin, airbrushed and edited to remove any and all imperfections and ?aws while men are shown with buffed and chiselled muscles. Although the advertisements are there to convince us to buy things the messages they use to reach people and target their teenage audience make them question their body image immensely. The media convinces them that their value is based on appearance and this is how they will be loved, accepted and successful in life. These negative self image leads the teens to engage in risky behaviors because they would want to do anything to look like the images they see in the advertisements since they are not aware of all the editing done to make the models look as if they are perfect. The way they perceive themselves can be distorted because of all this pressure and can lead to anxiety and depression and can eventually lead to eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. Even if teens become aware of the fact that the advertisements are touched up
Debbie CollerEnglish 1004Professor: John Whiteconstantly having to listen and see them can still create a negative mental impact. People want to look like the images they see on the media. Parents do need to take charge and be aware of how the media is affecting their children. Whether you are a single parent or working parent should not be a factor on how much in?uence media has on your teen.Television is not the only place we see advertisements. Popular magazines, women and teen magazines and pop-up ads online,billboards, advertisements are everywhere. Almost all teens have access to media through mobile devices. Most teens have a computer and a TV in their room today. It is the responsibility of the parents to educate the child on how much alterations are done to the images to create this unattainable level of perfection. Parents should spend more time trying to understand how the messages on the media is affecting their teen and help them recognize that the images are unrealistic with the airbrushing and editing to hide ?aws maybe then they would feel better about how they look. Parents should have more conversations with their teens to understand what plays on their insecurities and help them with their self con?dence and accepting themselves the way they are. It is understandable that parents cannot control all exposure but can limit how much media the teens are viewing. By having informative conversations with the teens and making them aware, helping them watch advertisements
Debbie CollerEnglish 1004Professor: John Whitecritically, knowing when the images are altered to erase imperfections can decrease the negative impact.Being aware of how the media is affecting the teens and looking for signs of depression, mood ?uctuations, drastic weight loss etc should be referred to counseling and parents should seek treatment as soon as possible. Another suggestion can be to contact the advertisers and let them know how it is affecting the teens although this is something you may not see any immediate results because the companies are focused on making pro?ts the responsibility lies on the parents to educate and bring awareness to their children on how to learn to love themselves and be con?dent with their ?aws and imperfections. Teach them to be aware of false advertising promoting unrealistic ideals and images just to make a pro?t . It is more important to focus on being healthy individuals with your own sense of identity and uniqueness.
