- Columbia Public Schools
- More than Me
Society’s Influence on Teenagers Today (Tell Your Sob Story)
“We are not born with an identity, it’s a socially constructed attribute.”
-Sabrina Lea Worsham, Author of the Article "Media's Influence on Social Norms and Identity Development of Youth."
The Problem:
Calling kids today the problem is exactly what got us into this mess. “The Problem” isn’t supposed to be the victim. “The Problem” is the world around us, not the world within us. To be fair, humans have come a long way. We have overcome the racial and gender divides and are currently working on the religious divide. History teachers share the great achievements of African-Americans and the struggle that women went through in order to get an equal right. They teach about the disturbing ways the Jewish were treated and how other races have struggled to survive. Yes, we all talk about these things and think they are things of the past. But are they really? Each one is connected to a group we tend to forget! Teenagers.
According to Psychologist Sabrina Lea Wareham, American adolescents spend 6 ½ hours per day engaging in a form of social media. Social media is the way of life for the majority of teenagers today. It affects everything. While our parents may raise us and our teachers may educate us, the world within the internet is controlling us. How we should look, how we should act, how others should perceive us are only a couple of the millions of things that run wild in our minds every second. When the media in brought into our everyday lives, it completely ruins us. Every fiber of our being is tossed away with every hate tweet and comment on Facebook that we take to heart. We are being taught by our educators that it’s okay to be different and we shouldn’t discriminate; but once the back of your teacher is turned, all hell breaks loose. Racial and sexual slurs are thrown in every direction like cannons at the enemy. Feelings are hurt, but does anyone care?
Yes.
In 2004, it was estimated that there were about 811,000 suicide attempts in the US, the majority being young adults and teenagers (Save.org). Teenagers don’t forget. What you put in their minds will stay there, deep, deep down. What most don’t realize is that society is a disease. It latches onto the minds of innocent, coming-of-age teenagers who are at this time too desperate and vulnerable to understand what it’s doing to them. Society takes all chances at happiness and drowns them in words like “pretty” and “ugly”, “fat” and “thin”. It’s infecting them, body part by body part and limb by limb and deepening itself into them. By the time society has taken its toll, it’s too late to stop the epidemic. A daughter, a son, a brother or sister; they are gone. They are lost in the words. Whether to you that’s realistically or metaphorically, it’s too late. Society has already embedded itself into the minds and hearts of the majority of teenage girls and boys. When we all finally break, there will be nothing left but the shattered hopes of what we could have done with all that happiness wasted. People will stare at the shatters of a young girl and ask themselves, “what more could I have done to save her?”
There are people there for you, no matter how you feel and what you choose to feel about the world. At your highest highs and your lowest lows, there is always going to be someone there who understands. That’s the hard part though: finding that person. Approximately 0.5% to 1.4% of people die by suicide and as of 2009, it is the tenth leading cause of death (“suicide” on Wikipedia). While only coming in tenth, I believe that at least addressing this concept may decrease that number on the rank. This concept of someone always being there for you is one of the hardest things for teenagers to understand. No, they can’t fix you. They can’t repair you like a broken bicycle. And they can’t put you back together like another game of Jenga. It’s just not that easy. Teen depression, suicide and bullying all can be mended. They can be treated but there may never be a cure. There may never be a “happy juice” to make our generation feel more welcome, there may never be a special brace that holds together the happy thoughts instead of them getting lost among all the other thoughts in our heads. But there can be the one person who understands. Making teens feel better about this issue and feeling like they can talk about it is my one goal. Addressing this is not going to “solve a world problem”, but I believe that at least talking about it can make a difference.
Having depression causes stress and a lack of motivation. It impacts teens by leading them to violence, abusive behavior with alcohol or drugs, and possibly the worse, feelings of unworthiness (healthclop.com). This is the worst because it represents all the bad thoughts in your mind finally starting to take over. This impact could end it all. That’s why I want to associate myself with this issue, so that the outcome never has to come for teenagers. My ultimate goal is for the target audience (teenagers) to not take those influences quite so literally. I want to live in a world where I can walk down the city streets of New York, with those big billboards and flashing lights and not want to become somebody else forever. Because when it all comes down to it, forever is a long time to want to be in somebody else’s shoes.
One day, I want to be the reason that people who were a little different felt wanted. I want to leave a legend and a permanent handprint on the walls of society. I like the limelight when it glows for a reason, not because someone dated a movie star and did a scandalous photo shoot. I want to stand under a glowing light and know that I did something great. I accomplished a task that took hard work and dedication. This topic is important to me because I am living—along with the rest of the world--- in a society-based world that I don’t want to be another victim of. I have seen what it does to teenagers; I have heard and read the stories. I have watched it from my own TV screen and every time someone more suffers, it hurts me. I also know what it’s like to be a teenager. Adults don’t get it, this isn’t a phase for some. Bullying causes it, family issues cause it, and the environment causes it too. This is not a “harmless bid for attention” for a lot of teenagers, this is a situation which can be prevented (allaboutdepression.com). I can’t stand hearing stories like Leelah Alcorn’s and not wanting to know what more I could have done. If only there was that one person with her who knew how to help, I can’t help but wonder if maybe she’d still be alive with those that truly loved her. I will continue to believe that, one day, I can help change the way society looks, one step at a time.
“How do you want to see yourself?” That’s the question we should be asking. Maybe, that’s what we’ve been getting wrong all these years. We should allow those who don’t feel comfortable as themselves or those who are having trouble to be themselves---whoever that may be. That’s the question that should’ve been asked to those it was too late for---those who were too far down in that deep, deep hole of society. There are hundreds of people in the world who could’ve---should’ve been asked that question, but by that time it was too late. I plan to figure out who these people are. Within my own society, I can narrow down the types of people that are prone to society’s suggestions. Is it more common in boys or girls? Is the impact different on those going through gender identification processes? Will the influence vary from race to race or religion to religion? These are the questions I want to find out. While I do not know specifically these questions, I know this: Over the last several decades, suicide rates in young people have increased. Suicide rates among children and teens 10-14 years old was 303 deaths among 19,040,000 children in this age group while, the adolescent rate for teens aged 15-19 was 1,802 deaths among 19,068,000 adolescents. So I think we know where society and its bullies’ target is set. Now I just need to find those willing to speak out about it.
To tackle to project I’m working on, I plan to encourage others to join the cause and speak out about society’s issues. Alongside just writing about it, I want to eventually reach out to multiple groups and speak about it. I am working on a way to slowly build up the confidence of teenagers and to encourage them to be active. I think that being active and having the right kind of motivation to do something is exactly the kind of distraction kids with depression and social issues need. Whether that’s finding a hidden talent or being open to talk about interests with others like themselves. 1 out of every 8 adolescents has teen depression (webmd.com) and it is mostly caused by thing associated with schools. School performance, social status and interaction with peers, and sexual orientation are all factors that impact a student one time or another (webmd.com). I myself, have come to realize that a group with certain same interests can be helpful and a nice distraction from the real world. For example, I act because I want to know what it’s like to be other characters. I sing and write because I want to reach out and connect to ordinary people. I design clothes because I believe that being comfortable in your own skin and body is the most important and best thing a teenager can do for themselves. Anyone can jump on stage and read a couple of lines, but someone looking for a little distraction could melt into that character and make it believable. Big or small, black or white, gay or straight, or Christian vs. Muslim, there is a way to make everyone feel at home in their own skin. It just takes a little time to find it.
The Solution:
You’re a human being with problems of your own. So is your mom, dad, brother and sister. Your uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents are humans with problems too. A boy struggling with the fact that he’s gay—he has problems. A girl who everyone makes fun of for being a little different than her stereotyped race—she has problems of her own too. A religion that isn’t accepted, and a race that is looked down on for being “troubled”—those are problems with our society. Sure, everyone’s got something. Everyone has a sob story they could tell for years. What about those who never made it to those years? Who took society’s words too far and let the disease take over? What about them? They don’t get to tell their sob story. Make it your goal to tell your story one day. How you overcame that obstacle and stepped over boundaries. Make it a point to beat society at its own game and tackle it before it tackles you. Suicide can be prevented by education and public awareness (save.org). You can share the idea of society’s influence of teenagers and alert people that it is not a topic to be ignored. It’s a serious issue that not all adults understand. Tell it from the view of a teenager, show them the pressure they put on us to be different then knock down every chance we get to be different. Teen depression and coping with changes is not something to be ignored. So, Tell Your Sob Story.
Works Cited
"Suicide." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
"Depression Center: Symptoms, Causes, Medications, and Therapies." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2015. <http://www.webmd.com/depression/default.htm>.
Glum, Julia. "Leelah Alcorn Update: Transgender Teen's Suicide Inspires LGBT Activists Struggling To Keep Her Memory Alive." International Business Times. Ibtimes, 12 Feb. 2015. Web. 26 Feb. 2015. <http://www.ibtimes.com/leelah-alcorn-update-transgender-teens-suicide-inspires-lgbt-activists-struggling-1814534>.
Oz. "How Does Depression Affect Teenagers (Adolescents)?" HealthClop. N.p., 08 Feb. 2013. Web. 26 Feb. 2015. <http://www.healthclop.com/how-does-depression-affect-teenagers-adolescents/>.
Worsham, Sabrina Lea. "Media's Influence on Social Norms and Identity Development of Youth." - Applied Social Psychology. N.p., 28 Nov. 2011. Web. 01 Mar. 2015. <http://www.personal.psu.edu/bfr3/blogs/applied_social_psychology/2011/11/medias-influence-on-social-norms-and-identity-development-of-youth.html>.
“Save. Suicide Awareness Voices of Education." SAVE. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. <http://www.save.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=705D5DF4-055B-F1EC-3F66462866FCB4E6>.
"All About Depression: Overview." All About Depression: Overview. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2015. <http://www.allaboutdepression.com/gen_04.html>.
I mentioned the story of Leelah Alcorn in this essay and thought it necessary to include her true story here (ctrl, click): http://time.com/3651037/leelah-alcorn-transgender/