Media Effecting Teenager's Emotions

C

Cactus Jack

Death Knight of Northrend
Registered Senior Member
I'm gonna start writing a paper (or maybe a book if big enough) on the comodification of Love and other emotions in our media and the effect on teenager's and their lives/emotional states. In other words, how does movies and music's overplaying or "making more of" emotions (which they need to sell) and in effect using these emotions to push items effect the teenager's thought process. I feel teens allready are going through physical and hormonal changes which make their emotions stronger, but I think the way the media effects them makes thier emotions take on an almost mythical quality.

Need help, please, any thoughts.

Thanx, Cactus

(P.S. Am going to start writing introduction soon, will help explain so if I finish in a resonable amount of time I'll post it. But don't hold your breath)
 
Not "almost mythical quality" but more like de-sensetizes the kids emotions at large so that long term relationships are out of the question. All relationships in Western society are based on "NOW".

The bad aspects of that is - there is no commitment to the future and hence to the society to which one belongs. It is pervasive.
 
No, I disagree. Thought you do get that now. Still events at a High School socialy can seem like a soap opera.
 
So, are you saying life imitating art or art imitating life?

Oh! - the disagreement part - I see how young people behave in corporate environment which has strong corelation with failure of corporate performance and hence my comment.
 
A little bit of both. See art had to imitate life, but had to blow it up, make emotions "mythological" to sell. In turn, teenagers seeing this everyday combined with what was going on in their bodies allready have their emotions take on "mythological qualities" .
 
bleh

I'm a teen and I don't really find the media influences me to do anything. I don't wear the "Proper clothing" and act the "proper way".

Perhaps your should also include how more intelligent teens do not succumb to media influence (If you find this the case, i'm no expert on this topic). This is the case in my school.


PS: I know subliminally i am influenced, but as to my concious mind i am not totally affected (because it does influence everyone).
 
No, see the influence is not on the same level as "wearing the right clothes" or "doing the in thing", etc. Its on a level that effects all teens. Not something they can choose to deny. The constant media influence making their emotions larger than life. Making them think more about their emotions. And making them want a relationship more badly.
 
Yes, maybe they do want a reletion-ship more badly. The question is then whether they want a relation-ship that stays on, or that they just want a relation-ship, because with a relation-ship, they feel more important. It's in the media, a constant thing. Boys have nice, sweet girlfriends, and in reverse of course the girls do too, and it's all a happy end. In real life that is not the case. Especially not when a person is in his/her teens. Most of the times that is the age in which you explore your feelings and have more then one relation-ship before the one, real bond is there between a man and a woman. And yes, exceptions confirm the rule. It's in general here, what I mean.

I rhink the media plays a big part in the lifes of teens. What is seen on TV and other media sources, is being reflected in their behaviour in daily life.
 
King Cactus,

i agree, the media influence is more far reaching than just 'right clothes' etc. the constant bombardment of programs just to with relationships, soaps, talk-shows, movies, for example, make many teens feel 1. that not having a relationship is abnormal. 2.Having one should mean he/she should react in a particular way, and not in another... without finding out how a real person would act. 3.and that the said relationship should be wildly exciting all the time, or dramatic or tumultous.

in fact tho i'm not a teen, i can say this much, human beings are relative creatures and behave according to what they see, hence the biases and prejudices that we carry through our lives, tho before they were just those of your parents and those close to your family, now Media, T.V etc has taken over a lot. what you learn is what you see. and if you see dramatic relationships, wildly sexual, perfect partners etc. then what you expect is that..

and as kmguru commented, it makes for difficulty in long-term relationships. one becomes less sensitised to the real emotions as you're busy trying to feel/makesomeone feel extreme emotions.
 
Good luck on this piece, Cactus, but I can tell ya that I don't believe that my want for a girlfriend is influenced by the media. Right now the 'crush on someone' area is completely empty, and it's killing me. At this very moment there is no one that I'm interested in for going steady. Everyone that I've thought of is either out of my league or into someone else.

At the moment I see couples in the hallways going back and forth and just holding hands, there doesn't seem to be any emotion, they're just doing it for the officialness, to get a brief thrill. That's not really the way I want to do it, to just be parading myself and my girl through the hallway like she was some kind of prize or smiley face my teacher gave me for a job well done (real experience there-I got lots of smiley faces:D )

It just doesn't seem mature, I'd rather go out to dinner or movies with whoever this person is alone and have fun alone, go to the beach or something alone.
 
Originally posted by Mostly Harmless
and as kmguru commented, it makes for difficulty in long-term relationships. one becomes less sensitised to the real emotions as you're busy trying to feel/makesomeone feel extreme emotions.
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That's a really good thought, I will definetely work it in somehow.

But not only is Love affected in suych a way described. But anger, aggression, depression, jealousy, and vengence.
 
this is interesting this is one of the areas where i know what at least i myself am doing. when these questions are raised (or i suppose made fact by cactus) there are many other question that are asked than more answers sem to be given. for instance what is the media telling us that our society is? all the media only depicts the things that the comon middle class people do not do. what the media does is show you the other things that you are not, but in completely incorret context. the media is a huge part of our lives that is becoming a engine for the even bigger part of our lives, money, that is all that the media's goal is. when you reason out everything and put it all ( i mean everything) in perspective, then that is what you will see.

how this media effects the emotions of teenagers is not a simple question or topic to explore.

No, see the influence is not on the same level as "wearing the right clothes" or "doing the in thing", etc. Its on a level that effects all teens. Not something they can choose to deny. The constant media influence making their emotions larger than life. Making them think more about their emotions. And making them want a relationship more badly.
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as for what you mean by this higher level, what exacty is it do you think that makes them want this higher relationship, in other words, what are you refering to in the media, TRL or Survivor or AbWorkOut infomercials or what? This would help me respond better to this statement and actually establish what you mean by a level.

when we are faced with this idea of relation ships i must also ask abnother question, is not love just an emotion, created by our brain over years of evoluion, and human nature. Is love just a fuel for sex, or would some of you argue that love goes beyond your mind, and that sex is just a fuel for love?

p.s. that only teenagers that i trust are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles™ hahaha
 
Oedipus, I am focusing around Movies, and Songs primarily. And the emotions being discussed are not just Love. Plus there is another thread about what love is if you wish to discuss such things as in the final paragraph of your post.

I need help writing this paper, I'm looking for a feminine (epistemelogicaly) discussion here though. Not a debate, or pointing out flaws in my ideas. Just ideas. I have a working topic and need help on it - not a thesis I'm attempting to defend. So input is deffinetely welcomed, actualy would be great help.

Oh and Oedipus "when these questions are raised (or i suppose made fact by cactus)" I'm not exactly sure if I am taking this the right way, but if I am then I say - don't be such a dick.
 
ahh but is love not the main focus, teenagers are driven to wating relationships yes, "love" or maybe jealousy and greed and lust and all those others ones, but the way that they seem to chose to exxpress this is "love" as almost in our society (created by the media) a relationship that is not based on love is seen as dirty or maybe just for sex. Personally I think that the media has taken love and commodified it....
 
Marshall McLuhan said 'The medium is the message'. Perhaps, to, the media is the society. But this does not mean that the society is the media. The adult population (when talking about the adult population, we are speaking about 18-44, the primary advertised group) in a society holds a certain overall spectrum of feeling on certain topics, has certain values and certain views of the future. The media has a way of taking these feelings, distorting them, and pressing them on the youth of the nation (please, please don't consider that sentance a promo for that HORRIBLE song). The media has an ability to change whatever the general consensus (or minority uprising) is into something they can sell (like you said, a commodity).

I don't know, just an idea to play around with. I'm exhausted from last night and heading off to attempt a new drug shortly so I'm not thinking straight.



Jack: A reporter once asked Paul McCartney while taping him at his house 'Do you do heavy drugs?'

McCartney looked at him and said something along the lines of; 'I'll be honest with you but you have to realize that if you air this it is not my fault that kids will hear it. I am simply being honest, you are the one who is choosing to show the kids that The Beatles do drugs. Not us, you.'

So McCartney was honest and the reporters showed the honest answer he gave (not the part I just wrote though) and then the media and the parents blamed the Beatles for influencing kids to do drugs. The thing is, The Beatles would never have told kids they did drug, it was the media's idea. Why? For money of course.

Maybe you can toss this idea around too.
 
Another interview I heard was a reporter asked McCartney about the meaning behind "I am the walrus". He said that it was to prove that people and the media could read so deeply into something completely bogus.
 
No no, Lennon.

There was a University prof. who wrote to John saying that he was thankful for all the lyrics John had turned out that could be analyzed. So Lennon strung together three parts-of-songs he'd written and made one big fucked up piece of shit that doesn't mean anything and reportadly turned t oPaul after and said; 'Let the fuckers figure this one out.'
 
so the greatest band out there,
with the most albums sold,
are fucking with the media..
that is awesome...
 
Ah ok cool, I like the concept of people reading really deeply into jubberish. Like Hotel California being about hell......seriously its just a song with no point.
 
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