Teen TV

So last night as I was watching the ever so classy show, Teen Mom 2 on MTV, I began to think about what life was like when I was a teen. Even more so I thought about the types of shows I watched and what they represented. Lets take a short trip down memory lane shall we...

Starting with my early teenage years:

Before Jessica Biel became the luckiest lady alive and got engaged to Justin Timberlake the other week, we used to all know her as Mary Camden in a little show called 7th Heaven.

The Camden family was the family of America. The Camden's went through everything, but in quite the PG version. Life issues were constantly happening and being discussed, but the family always came together at the end of the day. The show shined light on a strong family structure.

Now as I started to grow up a little when I turned 15 and 16 my biggest guilty pleasure of them all was show that based itself on what life was like in Cali. The O.C., man this show was epic. So much drama, lies, secrets, and scandals(later on it turned a little to drugy for me). Girls having  love issues, guys getting in fist fights, and trying to figure out what crowd they fit in with. Everything we all actually do go through in high school just over dramatized for a prime time spot on TV. This show might have gotten sort of crazy but as the show got older so did I, and I wasn't influenced by it anymore.

The last major show I got into towards the end of my teen years was Laguna Beach, which was basically a reality spin off of the O.C. Laguna was structured around real teens (including the soon to be on again off again Mrs. Cutler), and followed their lives. The drama was very petty and the kids were pretty clean cut. They had their love triangles, but they also got together for charities and were pretty close with their families. Eventually the show followed the main character as she pursued her dream job and became a successful business woman.

Anyways back to today's world...

Nowadays teens have these reality shows like Teen Mom and 16 and Pregnant that, in a way, glorify kids having kids. Last time I checked it wasn't a very positive thing to get pregnant in high school and miss out on so much of your youth. I'm not here to discuss abstinence, birth control, or abortions, because lord knows I would piss a lot of people off with those topics, but I do want to point out what these young impressionable girls are seeing in this society.

 They are seeing these girls the same age as them getting famous from having babies at a young age. I get that the show might be trying to display the struggles the girls are going through with their families, relationships, school, and finances. But seriously what high school girl doesn't want to have her own TV show or be on the cover of a magazine? Well MTV is basically sending out the message that if you have a kid while you're young you could get that chance.

How messed up is this? Where is the praise for the girls who aren't getting knocked up and are living as responsible teenagers? I mean really though could you imagine what the MTV producers would say if someone suggested a show that was based on a group of high school virgins? I'm sure the response would be somewhat like "where's the drama in that" or "that would never get good ratings" because that is the world we live in today.

We love to see drama unfold before our eyes (I'm very guilty of this), but maybe we should step back and really look at the messages we are sending out to not only our youth but to everyone who is watching. Hopefully things don't continue to get worse with this situation because I hope to have a daughter someday in the not so near future and I really want to be able to let her out of her room sometimes, but with stuff like this for her to look up to she might just be grounded forever.

Did I just ground my future kid? Yep. On that note I need to go to sleep.

Goodnight

-D