"A Cycle of Outrage" James Gilbert

The article by Gilbert was filled with many appealing facts and information about the lives of teenagers.I found that this article relates very much to Rabys five discourses. I choose to write about a quote for this blog because this one really stood out to me and I have strong personal opinions about what was mentioned. “For several years, debate raged over whether or not mass culture, particularly in the guise of advertising, comic books, films, and other consumer entertainment aimed at youth, has misshapped a generation of American boys and girls (Gilbert).” I find this statement by the author to definitley be true and it pretty much speaks for itself. I believe that media and technology has definitley shaped teenagers as they grow. Their minds are focusing on the latest trends instead of enjoying their time growing up. I can remember my teenage years being with my friends and doing stuff actually “with them.” Now a days kids are talking with their friends online and it is becoming more socially acceptable. I was always outside playing with neighborhood friends or friends from school. My parents would have to call me in to come eat dinner which I would do, but then go right back outside. Life and times have definitley changed from when I was younger and even for previous generations. I didn’t have all this technology growing up so I had to make my own fun. I think that’s the huge disadvantage that children and teens have today. Their sense of fun is already made for them and they don’t use their imagination to create things because unforuntaley they no longer have to. 

"A Tangle of Discourses"

Reflection:

This article talks about the five main discourses of a teenager. They are listed as: storm, becoming, at-risk, social problem, and pleasurable consumption. The article takes each one and goes into detail about how the term relates to teenagers as they grow and develop in the world. I found this article to be pretty interesting. Some points I agreed with but others reminded me of being in class and discussing how people talk about teenagers as being “those crazy teens.” One thing that I do agree on falls under the “at risk” category (I really don’t like this heading). I agree that teens are more prone to experience “risk-full” situation such as experiencing with drugs, alcohol, relationships, eating issues, etc. but only because they are being influenced by their surroundings, peers/media/society and because they have not yet tried these things so they are curious. Everyone who tries something new does it because they are curious about the particular interest. So why classify teens as being “risk-takers” when technically all of us who try something new could be called this. I think that teens are just trying to live and grow and in order to do this they have to do a little experimenting. The negative experiments of teens are always talked about but teens are also experiencing with positive things as well. Teenagers learn at a young age that sometimes only negative things are worth being talked about and all positive and helpful things that happen while growing up are seen as, for lack of terms, “not worthy.” This made me think of Christensen's article and how kids are being blinded for my negative stereotypes and the secret education but maybe it is a good thing after all because it is protecting us from so much negativity. I think parents are too hard on teenagers, not because they mean to be, but because they know what they were doing as a teenager. My big thing with this is that teens are going to be influenced by other people and factors but how they are raised and the home life they come from determines a lot about their characteristics and need to experiment. My parents were always involved with what I was doing, who I was with, when I would be coming home, and all of these things factored into the kind of teenage years I had. Growing up, especially during my teenage years, I often fought with my parents over little things because I thought they were too involved in my business (seriously though what business did I really have at that age!?) but looking back at it now, I’m happy they were always involved because they helped me make good decisions. 

Unlearning the Myths That Bind US by: Linda Christensen

         This was a very interesting article. The author discussed points about cartoons and Disney movies that were created by a society driven secret.  Many people, myself included, have been blinded to the “secret education” that these movies and cartoons are displaying. I’m not even so sure if blinded is the right word to use… maybe denial is. I didn't like how they were picking apart the childhood movies that I grew up watching and still enjoy to watch as being something unfair and unfriendly. I didn't want to believe this article but you also can’t ignore the issues they presented. I decided to talk about three quotes from this text that stood out to me. “Our society’s culture industry colonizes their minds and teaches them how to act, live, and dream.” This point is saying that we are given the “vision” of how to be an average person instead of being an individual and creating our own thoughts about the world and ourselves. This is relevant to the text because it is explaining how our minds are being warped by society’s influence and can play a role into what we think about media and its influences.  Another quote I choose is “the second hand information we receive has often been distorted, shaped by cultural stereotypes, and left incomplete.” I found this to be a very powerful message. If you think about it, most of the information you here probably comes from another person. When you hear that information you often take it as being the truth, for some things this can be very naive. This is relevant to the text because as children, you grow up listening to your parents and expecting that the information they tell you is true. You are less likely to question things when you are being influenced. Just like watching a movie or cartoon show, you are less likely to ask what the really meaning behind it is or if there is one.  My final quote is “many students don’t want to believe that they have been manipulated by children’s media or advertising.” This was another strong statement because I can relate to this. This pretty much speaks for itself. The students are getting upset at the fact that they might not be the individual they are because media and society has played a huge role in their decisions. Its relevant to the text because it could be one of the main reasons why students/teens have not been able to see the “secret education” in these movies/cartoons.

*Class discussion comment- p.134, fourth paragraph; “Don’t you ever get tired of over analyzing everything?” I think this would be very interesting to discuss in class and see how many people either analyze everything, analyze some things, or don’t think about things at all.