By: Kaitlyn Nathem [Co-Executive editor of the Vox]

Almost every teenager in the United States watches television, listens to music, or sees billboards on their drive to school. Parents and adults of all ages are complaining lately about how teens these days are becoming more and more rebellious. People are saying that teens are getting into more illegal acts than they ever have before. The reality is though, teens are just doing things that they think is okay based on shows, songs, and signs.

From MTV to Comedy Central, shows are promoting specific acts to children without doing it on purpose. Jersey Shore on MTV shows a group of people that are just having a fun time… while drinking and partying. Most teens just want to have a good time like everyone is on television. Teenagers are just doing what they see on T.V. which is resulting into bitter consequences for them in the end.

Listening to the radio is something that almost everyone does whether in the car or just relaxing at home. A majority of teens are listening to music that has swear words and drug and sex references. Listening to all the fun that the lyrics are stating, why would a teen think that drinking or sex could have consequences? They wouldn’t. Listening to songs about partying and other things makes teens curious to see if it’s as much fun as the singer or rapper is saying.

Music is basically an everyday necessity to listen to for teens, so listening to lyrics about sex, drugs, and alcohol are getting processed into a teens mind every day. Driving down the road there are billboards all throughout the city. A majority of billboards are promoting alcohol or cigarettes. They are using younger models in their pictures, which is just one more thing that makes teens think that these things are okay to do. With smiles spread across their faces and bottles in their hands, most teens are going to process it into their brains that alcohol is fun and exciting! The billboards don’t show what consequences the products can lead to. Billboards are large and hard to miss on drives to school or an afternoon job.

Adults keep complaining about how generations keep becoming worse and worse. It’s

not teens’ faults though. They aren’t being shown by the media any differently, and the media

is all that a teen cares about. Teens get pushed to do things from the curiosity that music,

movies, and billboards are making them have. There isn’t a lot of negativity towards alcohol

and sex in things that teens see and listen to these days. It’s the generation we live in and it’s

just going to get worse as the years keep passing by.