Teenager Stereotypes Essay

Many people are negatively labelling this current generation of teenagers due to stereotypes depicted in the media. Is this portrayal rational or unfair?

According to research conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, children aged eight to eighteen spend four and a half hours a day watching television.1 Many of the programmes these teenagers are watching can be seen to be normalising stereotypes, for example: there are the nerds, such as Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory; there are the beautiful popular ones like the Pretty Little Liars; and there are the rebels like Jenny Humphrey from Gossip Girl. 2 This is wrong, and is pressuring teenagers into the counterfeit concept of perfection. Consequently, there are an increased number

For example, in an article on the BBC News website it states that “four to five teens felt that they were unfairly represented in the media and, of these a vast majority – 85% said this was affecting their chances of getting a job.” 7 Despite this, in an article on the ITV News website it states that teenagers “would not turn to their local MP to resolve issues in their local community, revealing a belief that traditional politics was not the most effective way of dealing with concerns”. 8 This is further accentuated in an article in The Independent where the head of the report, Jonathon Birdwell said: “People think of teenagers as apathetic, lazy and self-centred, with a sense of entitlement…but more young people are volunteering in the community…the most common words used by teachers to describe them in our survey were ‘caring’, ‘hardworking’ and ‘enthusiastic’.” 9 Overall this shows that the use of stereotypes and generalisations in relation to teenagers should be stopped, as it is demeaning and effecting their future.

In conclusion, I believe that teenagers are being unfairly represented in the media. This needs to be stopped. It is not ‘ok’ to judge people you don’t know and have never met just because of a negative stereotype. Prejudice is not