#12. The Role of the Media in Teenage Drug Problems
In modern society, there is a lot of external influence on the growing kids and especially on teenagers. This was not the case in the recent past and the parents had a firm grip on their children, knowing exactly what was going on in their lives. Another reason for this was that the activity of the children was not so independent oriented. They were pretty much dependant on their parents for a lot of things including information and relied on them for solving all their growing issues. The result was that the parents had a much easier time guiding their children through their tough teenage years.
Now the opposite is true for the majority of teens. For the most part even though teenagers have not gained any sort of major independence in practical terms, they have become quite independent in terms of the sources of information that they use. An associated effect of this is that they are influenced by a lot of things that the parents can’t control.
A major source of influence is the TV. The number of hours that people now spend in front of their TV screens is increasing by the day. Added to this many of the surveys and researches have concluded that now many of the decisions that are made by people in general are heavily influenced by their viewership and what they are absorbing from the TV.
When it comes to teenagers and all the associated issues, a key problem that has come to the surface is their fascination with drugs. Have a look at the movies or the shows that are shown on the TV, the projection of drugs, violence and sex is not done in a negative manner but is shown as something that is cool to do and something that shows the level of your independence.
As stated earlier, the hours that people and especially the young crowd are spending in front of their screens now is increasing by the day and this increased viewing is resulting in more and more influence from what they are seeing as portrayed as cool. Talk to any of the teenagers around you and most of their conversation would be about the shows and the people that they idealize and not surprisingly most of these figures belong to the entertainment world.
It won’t be wrong to say that the media should be held responsible to some extent for the teenage drug problem.