Exposure to Media - Essay Example

Adolescent development is one of the most significant aspects within such a time span of an individual. This is because it indeed is the make or break age of the person who wishes to spend a life filled with success or lack of the same otherwise. The manner in which media plays its direct and sometimes negative role on adolescents hampers their development and makes them feel in line with the issues and concerns raised by their elders. They are sometimes more influenced to fall for indecent and risky behaviors, which their parents and guardians would forbid them from indulging in (Featherstone, 2006). However, with the changing time and ages, this has become a reality that is difficult to change course and has lasting impressions on their minds and bodies. Adolescent development is an important subject that needs to be given the consideration that it richly deserves and within the spectrum of the ever-changing youth attitudes, it attains even more mileage for a number of reasons.

The readily available films, music, books, and videos have actually put the elders in a quandary. They have felt the plunge because exposure to media has become explicit and the issue has become magnanimous. The adolescents have therefore relied more on their environments than their parents and guardians (MacKinnon, 2006). They have felt the pressure from their peers and this has been represented through the different manifestations which they have been getting into time and again. The risk element has become stronger with the passage of time where some adolescents have shown susceptibleness to attitudes and beliefs which are unbecoming of their age and stature. These books and other available materials have made the elders feel wary of them because their young ones know much more than they did at their age (Sebald, 1992). This has put the ball back in their court as far as their raising up domains is concerned. The emphasis has gone directly on how they have been brought up and how their domains have been hijacked by the elders who are indeed their parents and guardians.

These adolescents have been exposed to such images which have more or less disturbed the elders. These adolescents believe that their development is being done the right way since they are in line with what the media has been projecting and what they are learning at the end of the day (Kim & Lennon, 2007). What they seem to forget is the fact that the media is giving out wrong and illicit behaviors which these young ones are easily getting hooked on for a number of reasons. These reasons range from the small to the grave ones and hence comprise a number of attitudes and beliefs which they are readily getting acclimatized with. Therefore the role of the media becomes even more significant in such settings because it performs the dual role of a mentor as well as a teacher on a regular basis. In the end, adolescent development depends a great deal on the media, and the same cannot be denied at all.