How Media Effects Teens
By: Sebastian Beltran
It's almost midnight, two more minutes until Call of Duty releases. This is, for some strange reason, our priority, not school, work, life, etc. Almost everyone has a phone, tablet, TV, gaming console, or computer. Media consumption is at a ridiculous high with teens being targeted the worst. Teens are also highly involved into video games which influences children and effects their work time. Ads and commercials are now made to give an interests to children in many ways and most can be very harmful, they seem to be focused on unhealthy lifestyles. The way in solving this is mostly in the hands of the parents also regulations to what advertisement is obviously targeting the incorrect age group.
Teens are very involved in video games and tend to prefer to interact with the game hours at a time. To some they can also be very influential to the child. Fifty-Two percent of children and tweens own a gaming console, this is easy issue to be solved. The parents have to realize this and put limitations on playing video games. In fact only thirteen percent of parents restrict their child's time on TV of ages fifteen through eighteen. This also affects habits of any good or bad, teens usually only spend about twenty minutes a day on average reading a non school associated book. This isn't hard to believe since they are always on media of some sort. Companies are also taking note of this and using it to their advantage.
American teens are fatter than ever, one third of whom are overweight or obese. (Adrienne Frank; Teens in Crosshairs: Is Targeted Marketing Ethical) McDonald's and Monster Energy spent $1.6 billion marketing unhealthy food products to children.(Frank) Now it’s very common to see an ad to get to teens, because they are the most vulnerable. The issue isn’t necessarily the ads trying to get kids to want and buy it, the issue is the product they are trying to sell. For example if a company was to try and sell an energy drink on a children's website that is quite off for that age group, but if it was a healthy fruit drink that tasted great then that is reasonable.They choose to sell anything they want towards teens is because teens are much more vulnerable and easier to impress with a product. Even besides the fact of companies getting to kids with their products, teens are also affected through celebrities and how "perfect" they seem to be in pictures. More and more celebrities are admitting to using photoshop maybe if models can stick to their already have bodies and have heart filled speeches so people understand who they actually are.
Teens are always engaged in media nowadays and social media has a big influence and tweens and teens. Typically the child tends to follow or watch their favorite celebrities on social media, thus as an example towards the child which is most likely a bad example. Commonly in girls they seem to want to be like their favorite celebrity, they tend to want the body type and feel as if they need it that way in life. Sadly it turns out most are wrong and their celebrities and idols are being photoshopped and posed in certain ways to look better, or scripted conversations to sound smarter, the list goes on and on. “I don’t think women and girls know the extent to which photos are retouched. I don’t. And even if they do know, I’m not sure it penetrates.” Nutritionist, Alexis Best. Not only are the celebrities technically lying it affects and kills the children's self esteem.
Teens are also highly involved into video games, Ads and commercials are now made to give an interests to children in many ways and most can be very harmful, they seem to be focused on unhealthy lifestyles, lastly tweens and teens look up to their celebrities on social media and they admit to using photoshop to make themselves have more of an appeal. Media is emerging and “taking over” this generation while stealing our priorities as humans. This is the effect of media on teens and tweens.
Works Cited
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"American Today." Teens in the Crosshairs: Is Targeted Marketing Ethical?N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.
"Impact of TV Advertisements on Teens." Saeed Al Mehairi. N.p., 19 Feb. 2013. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.
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