Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girls, One Tree Hill, Dawsons Creek, The OC, Life of an American Teenager, Etc. all popular shows that may be giving teenagers the wrong impression of what is right and wrong. All of the shows listed above, plus some, show things such as sex at a young age, drugs, alcohol, etc. Of course all of these problems are what keeps the show going, but is it the cause of the growing rate of teen pregnancy, drug abuse and over dosing, running away, fighting with parents, and wild parting? I’m not saying that these types of shows are the only reason there is this growing rate. Yes, people make these decisions themselves, but I think these shows are influencing teens to make these types of decisions. It is almost as if society follows the lead of these teen dramas. These shows are getting closer and closer to stepping over the line of human morals. It is almost impossible to turn on the T.V and find a family based show with no sex, drugs, or alcohol. (It’s like what Louis sings at the opening of Family Guy.) I mean, the ABC Family Channel has the word family in it, and that is one of the many channels that shows these teen dramas. (which by the way these shows are NOT family friendly) I’m not going to lie and say that I have never sat down and watched these shows, but there is a difference between being entertained and beginning to model the behavior shown. Just watching the examples of the three trailers below that I pulled off of youtube, you can get the basic idea of what the show is about. In all three trailers the focus is on the sexual relationships of young teenagers. It just seems wrong to me not only that the focus of the show is about sex, but the focus of the trailers are about sex too. I’m not sure how happy I would be if I was sitting next to one of the kids I babysit while one of these commercials came on.
Besides the fact that these shows are influencing teens to make the wrong decisions, they are also making teens so obsessed with the show, they focus more on what will happen next, and who is going to hook up with who, rather than focusing on things like homework and spending time with their family. Most of the time they become so into the show they get frustrated when it doesn’t turn out they way they expected it too. In that case it ruins the rest of their week, because they are so focused on what will happen in the next episode that they can’t concentrate on much else.
I know that what I am saying makes it sound like I think all teen shows should be taken off air. However, thats not what I am getting at. I think instead of teaching teenagers about irresponsibility’s, we need to teach them to stay away from those types of things. And, instead of focusing on the show so much, they need to realize that there are more important things in this world than a stupid drama. Plus, almost everyone has DVR now-a-days. You can always tape them and watch them at another time.
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