Negative effect of popular culture on teenage girls Essay

Negative effect of popular culture on teenage girls - Essay Example The unprecedented advances in digital communication have redefined the communication landscape in many positive ways (Shay and Cynthia 23). However, this communication has given rise to emotionless individuals whose communication is akin to robots. For example in instant messaging, which is a popular form of communication among teenagers, emotions can only be shown by a combination of punctuation marks or icons called emoticons. An agent of popular culture, media has created images on the ideal appearance of ladies by selecting very beautiful news anchors and talk show hosts. Research has shown that the more exposure a girl has to media, the higher the chances that she will be dissatisfied with her body. Media portrays the ideal ladies as those who exhibit these characteristics: a thin body frame, flawless and with impeccable beauty. This has changed the perception of teenage girls on beauty and for this reason most of the girls strive to be thin and flawless so as to meet these unre alistic standards. In a study done in North America, most anorexic girls were between 15 years and 20 years and 60 percent of them expressed their fear of being fat. The statistics further showed that 13 percent of North American high school teenage girls eat one meal in 24 hours, 6 percent use weight loss pills while 30 percent of the students are dieting (Sharon and Norma 32). These statistics clearly manifest the effect of pop culture on the deteriorating health of teenage girls in America. In some extreme cases, girls who consider themselves fat have attempted suicide because they feel unworthy living in a world that depicts only thin girls as... Popular culture has greatly diluted the importance of values in the society. These values include: hard work, humility and respect. Through mainstream media, popular culture emphasizes on the need for money and flashy things over hard work (Hannah and Peg 35). Some genres of music praise crime by showing the amounts of money they derive from criminal activities. Video game vendors cash in on this premise by creating games in which players get awarded sums of money for committing crimes in the game. Teenage girls may lose interest in studies because they do not see the possibility of raking in huge sums of money from academic excellence. Moreover, the emphasis on how power is desirable may have negative implications on teenage girls. Everyone will desire to be the decision maker and this will diminish the importance of respect in the society. This situation is further compounded by parental control which is deemed as unreasonable by teenage girls. They may therefore resist directives and violate rules so as to feel powerful inconsiderate of the fact that such behavior is inconsistent with the moral convictions of the society. The effects of popular culture may be diverse with some being positive and others in the contrary. Through the essay, it is clear that the implications of popular culture on teenage girls in North America is largely negative. The precedents in our constitution advocate for freedom of expression. However, no type of legislation can shield us from the consequences resulting from irrational actions that are undertaken under the guise of freedom of expression. It would be erroneous to declare anyone the villain of negative popular culture.