The evolution in shows targeted toward teenagers has taken a definable turn! Back in the day (even before us, actually!), there was the “After School Special,” one of the few hours of television that was targeted toward teenagers, and which almost exclusively dealt with social and personal issues that teenagers may struggle with.
Then, in the eighties, the most popular shows for teenagers were clearly ones with a family tilt to them. “Family Ties” with teen heart throbs Michael J. Fox and Justine Bateman, “The Cosby Show” which dealt with Lisa Bonet and Malcolm Jamal Warner, and even (going back further) “Different Strokes.”
The nineties rolled around, and the shows targeted toward teenagers changed again to have a decidedly more “dramatic” feel. “Beverly Hills 90210” ruled the roost. However, even in that show’s first five seminal seasons, it handled social and personal issues that faced teenagers. It also spawned some great teenage shows, including “Dawson’s Creek” and “One Tree Hill,” which featured family-centered, real life dramas (until the later seasons). Unfortunately, it also changed the type of shows targeted toward teenagers and the messages that were ultimately sent to them forever, and for the worse.
Undeniably, part of what made “Beverly Hills 90210” so popular was the glamorization of its teenagers. They were Los Angeles teens with beautiful clothing, high-end lifestyles and no shortage of sexual and drug related activity. That formula carried over into today’s teen dramas, which include “The Vampire Diaries,” “90210,” “The Secret Life of the American Teenager” and “Gossip Girl”, among others.
You’ll find a number of messages being sent on these programs, not the least of which include somewhat permissive messaging about substance use and sexual intercourse. Of course, what concerns us about the communications that these shows send are the messages that they send about consumerism. The shows feature, in most cases, teenagers from upper income brackets who buy expensive clothes, take expensive vacations and not only participate in but embrace the “more is more” culture.
What we know is that our teenagers will take their cues from their television role models, and if their television teenage role models think that all problems can be solved by a trip to the clothing department with their parents’ credit cards, then that’s also the message that teenagers will absorb. No matter how much preaching we do at home, we can’t overcome the impact of the “media” teenagers that our teenagers want to be!
Make sure you’re watching the same television that your teenager is so that you’re aware of what they’re seeing and the messages that they’re getting. Then make sure that you’re having conversations with them about it! Have an idea on how to do that? Friend us on Facebook and let us know your thoughts.
Feel like you need some help on the road to becoming a postconsumer and combating the messages of television for teens? The Get Satisfied Interactive Handbook evaluates where you are on your journey and gives you a personalized how-to plan on beginning to find the satisfaction of enough.
