I’m learning more about social pressures right now, and in particular what I’m wondering about is: What are the different influences of social pressures that have an impact on teenagers lives?. I was researching this question online, and this article caught my attention because just from the title I knew it was about the pressures of mass media on teens which I wanted to read more about.
“Teen-age girls who viewed commercials depicting women who modeled the unrealistically thin-ideal type of beauty caused adolescent girls to feel less confident, angrier, and more dissatisfied with their weight and appearance (Hargreaves, 2002, p. 287). According to the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, sociocultural norms for ideal appearance lead women to base their self-worth more strongly on appearance than on character. This study focused on the effects that media marketing has on influencing adolescent girls’ lives.”
The quote I chose here is basically saying that looking at the effect of media images of skinny women with blonde hair and a certain weight can have a significant impact on teenage girls self esteem. Your self worth is base off what you look like and not your character or your education achievement.
I think this is sad because I see a lot of girls not being confident with themselves and their appearances. Young girls as young as 12 wearing long weaves, make-up and provocative clothing. It makes me wonder why we are so focused on how everybody else look.
Another quote I chose from the same article:
“Adolescent girls have become a prime target because they are new and inexperienced consumers.”
It is basically saying that they know adolescent girls are shopaholics and love to fit in. They want to fit into the images they see on music videos, print images and stores.
I think this is unbelievable because you're basically taking advantage of these adolescent girls which is wrong and I think we can do better than this. It makes wonder are people going to step up and change the ways of mass media.
A third quote I chose was from another article:
“The first is in the large group: for most teens a school, a youth group, or home~ school group are examples. This is the setting that gets the most attention. The second is in the close relationship with one or several best friends. This is the setting that is sometimes overlooked. The large group exerts a general pressure on its members. It directs the trends in clothing, music, entertainment, and "political correctness". The pressure to conform varies. It is not usually a spoken or written guideline; it's just what "everyone" is doing. The pressure can be avoided by keeping quiet or by putting on the appearance of conformity. The pressure which takes place among close friends is not so easy to escape. You can't fake it with them; they know what you stand for, what you really believe. The nature of close friendship is that you care more about them and their opinions than those of anybody else. What your best friend approves of or disapproves of exerts great pressure on you. This pressure is personal and forceful.”
Sitemaker.umich.edu. n.d..Adolescents and Peer Pressure: Peer Pressure. [online] Available at: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/356.darnell/peer_pressure [Accessed: 18 Jun 2013].
This quote is basically saying that adolescence is the time where you're looking for acceptance and you really want to be accepted by your close friends. Your parents are not your companion so you for friends to be your companionship. Teenagers choose the wrong crowd and get so caught up with the crowd that they tend to forget some of their values that they were taught by their parents.
This is true because from my own personal experience it was not hard to fit into the crowds, it was actually annoying. It brought so much unnecessary drama that I didn’t need.