Are adolescent’s behaviors and attitudes born with or was it influenced by the society? Many people will say they were influenced by the society. Nowadays, many youth would prefer using media as a reference in life rather than listening to their parent’s thoughts. However, many teens don’t know that facts in the media are untrue. Teens tend to absorb the information learned from the media and take it into reality. The media has given a negative impact on today’s adolescents because it has changed the way on how adolescents view the society, such as teen’s behaviors and their way of thinking. Although, media plays a vital role in communicating or helping people shape their opinions, the media is still changing generation’s lifestyles and attitudes on how they adapt to situations in a way that may harm them.
In the lives of teenagers, many will think the media is just like an everyday situation, when really it’s the total opposite. Many of them will bring learnt information that is mostly biases facts into reality, such as stereotypical facts. This causes changes into the society. Nowadays, there are many different types of media that influences teen’s violence, such as televisions, movies, or video games. The violence in media tends to increase an individual’s behavior and attitude. The media is not only increasing an individual’s behavior and attitude, but it also sends out the message that violence is a successful method of resolving problems. Media uses violence to resolve problems, but they are all an act, which teens tend to not realize. Teens often thinks if the character in a movie or in a show uses violence and are able to get away with it; they will too also be able to get away from the consequences. The more they observe media that has violence, the more they become aggressive. It has been stated from Potera that, “United States, a "high violence" culture, who chronically play violent video games behave more aggressively than classmates who don't play these games….” (Potera)
Media is not only influencing teens, but also young children because they cannot tell the difference between reality and fantasy. Violence in the media may seem real to them. Many parents do not know that media does influence people at a young age. As youth view more and more inappropriate movies or shows, they will have an increase of violence level, which may result them into becoming more aggressive and they may commit violent acts. Parents should be aware what the media is showing before letting their child watch it. Once they watch it, they may be traumatized from the images or the inappropriate language and use it in their daily lives.
When it comes to the media, it doesn’t only effect teen’s behavior and attitude, but also on how they view things, such as teen’s sex. The media influences teen into thinking sex is a normal topic to talk about. Many media has sexual scenes, where teens are able to observe it. The people who watched the most TV shows with sexual scenes are more likely they will have sex. With the help of the media, the society uses a lot of ideas from the media to talk to their opposite sex, such as flirting and talking to them into having sex. In this generation, many parents do not talk to their child about sex. Rather young teens will use media as a major source to learn about sex. The site sponsored by PSC ESC has stated that “young teens (age 13-15) rank entertainment media as the top source of information about sexuality and sexual health.” This results unhealthy minded views of sex. Although media is a negative impact in most teens, when it comes to sex, women will have a bigger impact. Why? The media is where movies, music, gossips of the latest news, and video games get introduced, but why is that the media is shaping the society? In today’s generations music industry, the more skin you show the better. When it comes to showing skin, it does not usually involve