Negative effect of popular culture on teenage girls - Essay Example

Negative effect of popular culture on teenage girls Popular culture is an elaborate collection of ideas, attitudes and images that are preferred by a given culture (Sharon and Norma 7). The combination of ideas on which popular culture is based on is propagated through television, music, movies, magazines, video games and other variants of mass media. Popular culture has major characteristics: It is dynamic, usually exhibited in urban areas and it is based on large groups of people. The influence of media on teenagers has grown exponentially over the past few years with the average teenager accessing media for a period of 8 to 10 hours every day. These changes can be attributed to the technological advances, internet, heavy advertising and increased access to media. It is arguable that teenagers are the most susceptible demographic group to the influences of popular culture. During teenage, many girls are overwhelmed with subliminal hormonal and body changes, discovering their identity, forming fruitful relationships with others and improving their self esteem. This paper gives insight into the negative influences of popular culture on teenage girls in various aspects of life. Celebrities are major entities in the world of popular culture. Most of these celebrities are successful, rich and powerful and these qualities may have an impact on how teenage girls form relationships (Shay and Cynthia 14). The image associated with these celebrities is desirable and therefore most teenage girls strive to emulate them in many different ways. This could happen through adopting the same dressing modes as the celebrities and copying the way they talk. Teenage girls then end up developing distorted identities that are entirely based on an ideal lifestyle. This behavior is further exhibited in schools as the girls form groups with schoolmates who have the same ability to look like their desired celebrities. The social stratification that results from this behavior may lower the self esteem of others who cannot manage to join these groups. It further enhances the myopic view that one should only associate with people of a specific social status and this heavily affects how teenage girls create relationships. That notwithstanding, the real identity of teenage girls is hidden in their unsuccessful quest acquire identities of celebrities that they see on television. The unprecedented advances in digital communication have redefined the communication landscape in many positive ways (Shay and Cynthia 23). However, this communication has given rise to emotionless individuals whose communication is akin to robots. For example in instant messaging, which is a popular form of communication among teenagers, emotions can only be shown by a combination of punctuation marks or icons called emoticons. An agent of popular culture, media has created images on the ideal appearance of ladies by selecting very beautiful news anchors and talk show hosts. Research has shown that the more exposure a girl has to media, the higher the chances that she will be dissatisfied with her body. Media portrays the ideal ladies as those who exhibit these characteristics: a thin body frame, flawless and with impeccable beauty. This has changed the perception of teenage girls on beauty and for this reason most of the girls strive to be thin and flawless so as to meet these unrealistic standards. In a study done in North America, most anorexic girls were between 15 years and 20 years and 60 percent of them expressed their fear of being fat. The statistics further showed that 13 percent of North American high school teenage girls eat one meal in 24 hours, 6 percent use weight loss pills while 30 percent of the students are dieting (Sharon and Norma 32). These statistics clearly manifest the effect of pop culture on the deteriorating health of teenage girls in America. In some extreme cases, girls who consider themselves fat have attempted suicide because they feel unworthy living in a world that depicts only thin girls as beautiful. In their defense, advertisers claim they use thin models because they are the most popular to the target audiences whose attention they intend to capture. Self esteem is referred to the attitude one has to himself or herself. Popular culture has had negative implications on teenage girls by setting high threshold achievements that one should have in any particular sphere of life (Hannah and Peg 14). Through media, these qualities are cemented into the young minds of teenage girls. The purported achievements include: having many friends, being fashionable, passing exams and enrolling in top academic institutions. Social networks further amplify this issue by having a count of the number of friends that one has. Teenage girls that may fall short of these achievements may feel inferior to their counterparts who have these qualities. Though indirect, these girls may have anxiety that may negatively affect the grades that they attain in their subjects of study. Ultimately, the self esteem of many teenage girls is dented and this is a significant impediment to the personal wellbeing of the girls. Popular culture has greatly diluted the importance of values in the society. These values include: hard work, humility and respect. Through mainstream media, popular culture emphasizes on the need for money and flashy things over hard work (Hannah and Peg 35). Some genres of music praise crime by showing the amounts of money they derive from criminal activities. Video game vendors cash in on this premise by creating games in which players get awarded sums of money for committing crimes in the game. Teenage girls may lose interest in studies because they do not see the possibility of raking in huge sums of money from academic excellence. Moreover, the emphasis on how power is desirable may have negative implications on teenage girls. Everyone will desire to be the decision maker and this will diminish the importance of respect in the society. This situation is further compounded by parental control which is deemed as unreasonable by teenage girls. They may therefore resist directives and violate rules so as to feel powerful inconsiderate of the fact that such behavior is inconsistent with the moral convictions of the society. The effects of popular culture may be diverse with some being positive and others in the contrary. Through the essay, it is clear that the implications of popular culture on teenage girls in North America is largely negative. The precedents in our constitution advocate for freedom of expression. However, no type of legislation can shield us from the consequences resulting from irrational actions that are undertaken under the guise of freedom of expression. It would be erroneous to declare anyone the villain of negative popular culture. This is because popular culture is defined by our preferences and therefore no one person is responsible for the effects associated with it. It takes collective responsibility and effective sensitization to popularize values that will power our culture in this and other subsequent generations. Work cited Shay Sayre, Cynthia King. Entertainment and Society: Influences, Impacts, and Innovations. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2010.Print. Hannah E. Johnston, Peg Aloi. The New Generation Witches: Teenage Witchcraft in Contemporary Culture. London: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2009.Print. Sharon R. M, Norma O. Growing up girls: popular culture and the construction of identity. Virginia: P. Lang , 2008.Print. Read More