Plastic On-screen Love and the Impressionable Minds of Youth

 

The internet and its contents have a heavy and usually poor influence on how our youths perceive real marriages and relationships as a whole, especially without parental guidance.

According to Zwier (2012, as cited in Banaag, M. E. K. G., et al.), Adolescents, through their own unique ways do explore the expectations and standards that society has expected of them through the information they consume from both mass and social media. Apart from the body image issues that are also a prevailing problem amongst teens, especially young girls, there are also limiting social boxes that society puts them in. What about relationships? The first real world relationships that many adolescents see are of course their parents or guardians. The way these significant figures in their lives present themselves will have the biggest impact on what they perceive as normal and ideal. As they grow older, they will be more and more exposed to the concepts and ideals of which society holds up as the standard, usually either difficult or nearly impossible to reach.

In many movies and television series, even if the characters are supposedly in their adolescent to teen years, the cast would comprise of young adult actors and actresses. This is because of the child labor laws and the time limitations for shooting in a day. Because of the older actors, the teenaged characters would end up having developed bodies such as larger chests, smaller waists with wider hips for women and broader shoulders and deeper voices for men and of course significantly less signs of undergoing puberty such as acne breakouts, voice cracks, and many other awkward things you go through in your “ugly duckling phase”. You may be wondering why I’ve brought this up, due to the actors being older and more mature, show directors hesitate less with portraying mature content. They often times forget how young the characters are because of how old the people playing them are. Whether it’s drugs, sex, immoral behavior and relationships, etc. etc. The sexualizing of minor characters in television and other media affect how our adolescents view themselves and how they should act. Idolizing and mimicking what they see on screen in order to feel like they belong.

The pictures and posts of couples you see on social media were made to give off the “perfect” vibe. Never revealing the rough and salty side of relationships, they succeed in portraying their plastic love, all sunshine and rainbows.

Hopeless romantics and daydreamers come in all age ranges, but are most commonly found in the inexperienced and naïve teens of the generation. Much like most things in their lives, teens tend to hide their feelings and questions from their parents, either from embarrassment or simply because they don’t feel the need to share it with them. This is usually caused by past experiences of neglect or mockery of their interests and dreams. With that, they end up going to romantic media for advice. The same romantic media that only ever portrays the most perfect of ideals. This of course, leads to misinterpretations and later on, many, many regrets.

Due to the trends and the domination of cute youthful romances on multimedia, adolescents feel that in their school years is the perfect and most ideal time to find love. As I’ve mentioned before, the portrayal of inappropriate mature themes in media have an effect on their views. It’s one of the reasons why teenage pregnancy is at an all-time high. Even with the pandemic. As Vera-Ruiz (2021) stated, The Commission on Population (POPCOM) on Friday, Aug. 13, estimated that over 160,000 “adolescent minors” may become or continue to be the heads of their families by the end of this year. “By end of 2021, there would be 166,775 families that will be led by minors throughout the country.

In a world where everything can be seen at the press of a button, it is imperative that we as responsible citizens be careful about what we post and what we let our youths see.





=========================================================================

Hallett, K., & Moore, A. (2020, September 21). 12 Ways Social Media Affects Relationships, From Research Experts. Mind Body Green. https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/social-media-and-relationships

Percival, T. (2017, December 26). The Importance of Social Media Age Restrictions. Net Nanny. https://www.netnanny.com/blog/the-importance-of-social-media-age-restrictions/

Bouxsein, B. (2019, April). An Analysis of the Depiction of Romantic Relationships in Western Cinema Compared to Cultural Perceptions on Relationships [The Honors Tutorial College]. OhioLINK. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/apexprod/rws_etd/send_file/send?accession=ouhonors1556721347157763&disposition=inline

Banaag, M. E. K. G., Rayos, K. P., Aquino-Malabanan, M. G., & Lopez, E. R. (2014, July). The Influence of Media on Young People’s Attitudes towards their Love and Beliefs on Romantic and Realistic Relationships. International Journal of Academic Research and Psychology, 1(2),
     7-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARP/v1-i2/1049

Diamant, J., Sciupac, E. P. (2020, September 10). 10 Key Findings About the Religious Lives of U.S. Teens and their Parents. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/10/10-key-findings-about-the-religious-lives-of-u-s-teens-and-their-parents/

Svendsen, G. A. (2011, July). How Does Fictional TV Marriage Influence a Young Adult’s Own Perceptions about Marriage? [School of Communication, Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska]. DigitalCommons@UNO. https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=studentwork

Gibson, D. (n.d.). Can You Believe It? Hoe TV Portrays Love. For Your Marriage. https://www.foryourmarriage.org/blogs/can-you-believe-it-how-tv-portrays-love/

Body Image – Film and TV (n.d.). Media Smarts, viewed 11/11/2021. https://mediasmarts.ca/body-image/body-image-film-and-tv

Vera-Ruiz, E. (2021, August 13). POPCOM: 160,000 adolescent minors projected to become or continue as heads of families by end of 2021. Manilla Bulletin. https://mb.com.ph/2021/08/13/popcom-160000-adolescent-minors-projected-to-become-or-continue-as-heads-of-families-by-end-of-2021/

Cogtas, J. (2015, June 18). ‘MEDIA, ADOLESCENCE, MARRIAGE’. Jcogtas. https://jeanillec.blogspot.com/2015/06/media-adolescence-marriage.html