Sunday, February 17, 2013

The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager


This chapter / article;e brought up a lot of key topics that surround teenagers. He mainly focused on how the media plays a dominate role in how our society views the teenage experience. It’s interesting in the article we read about teenagers having babies at such a young age. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that our school systems do not have good sex education courses but yet our society advertises sex on such a high level. Just look at where the largest porn industry is... Our own backyard; the USA! But yet we fail to properly educate our teens. I think this also has something to do with our country’s religious / Puritan history. Below are three videos that I see as more of a cycle in our country. 

The First is from Mean Girls. I know this is a funny representation but I find it to be accurate but on a comical scale. 


17 Girls Trailer 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNK5gLFR8qQ


Here is a news article from TIMES , this is the real events that happend in 17 Girls. In the article it talks about this Massachusetts scandal and it was interesting to read about the sex education program the high school had. It states that ..."The high school has done perhaps too good a job of embracing young mothers. Sex-ed classes end freshman year at Gloucester, where teen parents are encouraged to take their children to a free on-site day-care center."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1816486,00.html#ixzz2LCzaZoR3

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1817272,00.html

I think that tv shows such as The Secret Life of the American Teenager are influencing young people. This particular tv show gives young people the view that motherhood is not that bad and be easily done. I remember it came out my Jr/ Sr year of high school and I wanted to secretly get pregnant at that age with my boyfriend at the time. This tv show showed me that it was possible and not as difficult as it really is. It's interesting because I went my whole academic career without attending any sex ed classes & I was sexually active at a much younger age than I should have been. I believe that sex education is the key. 


5 comments:

  1. I agree with the statement that you stated about sex education is key this is the one of the concepts I focused on in my blog. Love your links

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  2. I think you're right about tv shows influencing teenagers. I feel like every show is about sex and drama and things that are pretty far fetched. The secret life of the american teenager is so crazy to me. I don't think that's how most teenagers do act or should be acting.

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  3. The fact that teens are going to be sexually active regardless of media influence is something that cannot be changed (IMHO). Human beings with sexual capacity will explore this regardless of the kind of sexual education they receive. This wasn't really a problem when marriage was likely to happen at a younger age (I think WAY back, when twelve-year-olds were married off for political alliances between countries). But now marriage is not necessarily a reality for young people--not until after college anyway. Which is a really long time. Hine brings that point up when discussing abstinence only "education".

    Personally I feel that sex education is VITAL as soon as an individual reaches sexual maturity (or capacity). It is important that people understand the reality about HIV/AIDS, STI's, and especially methods of safe sex. Abstinence only "education" is proved to only increase the teen pregnancy rates (or keep them the same), whereas actual sex ed. is proven to reduce these rates.

    It is inevitable that sexually capable people will explore their bodies, but it is important that they learn about everything from a reliable source and not have to go on hear-say and television shows. I think the problem is less "girls wanting to be mothers" and more of a lack of access to information about birth control, STIs and the like.

    Thanks for the discussion-provoking post!

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  4. Hi Katie. Nice post. I do feel that educators do play their part but I honestly feel it all depends on whether the teenager takes in the information or leaves it. Especially todays generation, our teens today count on what they see in the media. What they see is what they want. I do think that the media does make teen pregnancy less of a burden. "Teen Moms" for example. I personally don't like that show whatsoever. You are right that these shows do portray like pregnancy is an easy thing or that being pregnant as a 15 or 16 year old is not so bad.

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  5. I completely agree with the fact that high schools need to learn to encorporate pregnancies into school systems because it is becoming more common. I also agree with Chela and I agree with your statement about education being key. Great post!!

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