What Is on the Minds of America's Youth Today?

When you picture a teenager you picture fighting, drinking, or answering back, am I right? However, this is simply not the case. Sure there is the minority of trouble makers. However this minority is exaggerated due to the news showing only this behaviour. This stereotyping has found its audience and crept into television shows and series. This has led to the creation of a mockumentary called “Summer Heights High” which has unfairly represented teen

'American Teen,' directed by Nanette Burstein, is a documentary film set in a small town in Indiana. The film follows the lives of five high-school teenagers through their final year of high-school in a way that hasn’t been perceived since ‘The Breakfast Club’. The film over-exaggerates the problems, demands and complications the modern generations are facing today by combining candid footage with false, staged events. The goal is less to provide a slice of reality than it is to estimate a fictionalized version of that reality through the inclusion of re-enactments, dramatisations, voice-overs and other techniques, deceiving viewers into believing that what they’re seeing is actually real.

“In our media-intensive culture it is not difficult to find differing opinions… The difficulty lies in deciding which opinion to agree with and which ‘experts’ seem the most credible” (Espejo 11). The perceptions of one age group in society of another age group are built upon assumptions that are made through what is visible. However, rarely is anyone willing to understand the reason behind someone’s actions. Sibling rivalry, the death of a loved one, moving to a new school, competition among peers, and the reputation adolescents have today often end up giving a misperception of society to teens and of teens to society, thus damaging the relationships between society, as illustrated by J.D. Salinger in The Catcher in the Rye.

In Rushkoff’s film, The Merchants of Cool, he rhetorically questions if “teenagers even have a culture to call distinctly their own.” In the late 1990’s when the documentary was made, the implication was that they do not. However, with the internet’s advancements and the accessibility of communication with massive amounts of people, teenagers today can form authentic cultures that are not contaminated by the corporate media.

MTV, formally known as Music Television, is one of the most viewed networks on television today. Roughly thirty-three years old, it has changed the American culture drastically in more than just one way. Specifically targeting teens and young adults, the MTV network provides all of the most up to date gossip on celebrities, highlights the latest fashion trends, promotes versified lifestyles, and defines the music industry of our generation. However, this so-called “idolized network” has not always been this way. The American culture has been affected by MTV through the creation of the network, the transformation from simply just music television to inappropriate reality shows, and the promotion of inappropriate content.

Teen Vogue was founded in 2003 to serve as a fashion magazine for young girls. Recently, in 2016, the magazine was revamped, going from a fashion guide, celebrity gossip magazine to a socially and politically aware forum. This change came from a major loss in sales within the past several years. New editor in chief, Elaine Welteroth, attributed this loss of sales to a lack of authenticity and being out of touch with millennials. Teen Vogue’s most note-worthy piece, written in December of 2016, was titled “Donald Trump is Gaslighting America” (https://www.teenvogue.com/story/donald-trump-is-gaslighting-america).

It is no surprise that today 's youth faces a wave of disillusionment when it comes to politics. Surrounded by a world engulfed in Google and Facebook, we demand instant responsiveness in every aspect of our lives, including our government. As a result, the need for transparency and immediate interaction has ebbed Millennials ' faith in their government. Their numbers are stagnant in the polls and yet their willingness to emphasize "political correctness" seems to magnify when a politically related hashtag erupts on Twitter. The political ignorance of America 's youth arises from one rudimentary cause– a widespread disdain of the current political structure– that is further exacerbated by various factors that discourage Millennials to vote and participate in an active civil society.

The authors extend the comparisons using descriptions and adjectives. The past generation of youths was made up of go-getters eager to “hit the road and find freedom”; they were even the inspiration for Bruce Springsteen’s vivacious album, “Born to Run.” The authors claim that today’s youths are far from that, holding nothing back as they describe the young people of this generation. “Risk-averse and sedentary,” they don’t bother to get their driver’s licenses, are satisfied to be at home browsing Facebook, and put too much faith in luck than effort. In other words, “Generation Y has become Generation Why Bother.” The authors appeal to the audience’s sense of patriotism, stating that American is “a nation of movers and shakers” and enumerating the accounts of bravery shown by the youths of previous generations, images that are admittedly different from the image they have crafted of the modern young person. The praises and favorable descriptions that the authors lavish upon previous generations of youths contrast sharply with the lackluster and borderline-insulting descriptions of today’s young adults. The juxtapositions accentuate how far Generation Y has fallen from its predecessors and prove, once again, that its constituents are leading stagnant lives.

Do magazines marketed for teenagers send the wrong message? Using at least three specific magazines for support, argue for or against the moral and ethical messages that dominate magazines directed for the teen demographic.

In the American society, many adolescents are living in the generation where privilege is always handed to them. However, this need to be privileged has created a negative impact on the American youth. Many are becoming ignorant toward the ongoing challenges that other adolescents face such as hunger and poverty. Living in a privileged environment protects these ignorant adolescents from these prevailing challenges. Nowadays the American youth is more concerned about the social life of famous people, who serve as the allegorical figures of our age giving the human representation of what the youth cares about. Therefore, privileges that are afforded to the American youth have diminished their drive toward assisting deprived individuals, who face prevailing challenges such as hunger and poverty.

American Idol has impacted people all around the globe, it made everyone who watched believe they had real talent. Many hopeful contestants were shocked. When they were not selected to compete on the real show. Some of them threw tantrums they screamed and yelled at the judges. This was embarrassing but, it was often funny to watch. Their behavior demonstrates the way popular culture impacts the goals of young people there is a negative effect. Author Terry Galloway says teenagers used to aspire to important professional jobs such as “engineers, mathematicians, scientists, and systems analysts”, he claims that now young people just want to become famous. For being pop culture icons he thinks this is a dangerous change. This desperate desire

The end of the World War II marked the beginning of a new era, not only for America but for the entire world. In the United States, the end of the war was celebrated and hope for the future began. America’s future looked bright even though there still was uncertainty with the threat of the Soviet Union. A distinctive youth culture emerged during the postwar era. Also the suburbs were considered a popular place to live. It was a socially conservative time. Gender roles for men and women were clearly defined. This era’s emphasis was guided upon social conformity and family.

In conclusion, MTV has signified change in the pop culture around us, because it has helped shape the world around us. MTV has drastically changed youth culture around the world, defining popular culture and speaking on behalf of young adults everywhere. MTV has transported its powerful advertising to millions of youths and is often criticized for promoting American culture to the rest of the world. Many intellectuals slam the network for destroying traditions and imposing American values and beliefs thereby forcing a homogenization of world youth culture (Williams 200-215). However, even with all of this critical disapproval, MTV continues to expand globally.

4) Nussbaum writes, “In essence, every young person in America has become, in a literal sense, a public figure. And so they have adopted the skills that celebrities learn in order not to go crazy: enjoying the attention instead of fighting it—and doing their own publicity before somebody does it for them.” Respond to Nussbaum's claim: do you agree, disagree? Why or why not? Disagree the youth of america has became weak and selfcenter of their status in society. Everything is all about them and not others. Public Figure? more like enslaved to the internet

How is it that on one page in a magazine the topic is focused on “Being Yourself” and on the next page it focuses on how to dress, look, and act like someone the complete opposite. If this isn’t confusing then I don’t know what is. The girls living their life out of a magazine are the ones who have the wrong interpretations of what’s most important in this world. Girls are transforming themselves to what they see portrayed in these magazines because they think those are the only images that are accepted in this world. These magazines are corrupting these young girls, making them believe that just being yourself is not enough. Many teen magazines are marketed towards girls between the ages of thirteen and fifteen, but of course, these magazines are attracting younger audiences as well. Carol Platt Liebau, who is a writer and political commentator, mentioned that some of the content is relatively innocuous teen fare, with stories about lip gloss, parties, and how to be popular. But 18 percent of magazine articles pertain either to sex, sexually