Frontline PBS Specials

My first reaction to PBS Frontline: Inside the Teenager Brain was, “Wow, I guess I wasn’t the only one.” Teens are in an incredible transition phase in their life. Experts for years have been saying that something more is going on here and finally science is beginning to prove just that. It is a lot like car trouble, you know something is going on but until you get under the hood you can’t exactly diagnose what is going on. As the video said, it is like the teenager is having a two-year-old’s temper tantrum in a large body. There is so incredibly much going on.

I liked how the movie focused on how teens are still in a period of rapid growth. They hit another wave of growth at this age and the body frantically produces cells. Studies prove their perceptions were rarely the same as adults in similar situations. The teens tended to view emotions in a much more hostile light. This put them on the defensive forcing them to react to the situation far differently.

The teen’s rational for actions was also severely affected by their ever changing body. It is a period of risk and exploration. Teens were shown performing incredible tricks on ramps with a landing pad of asphalt all while wearing no helmet. They feel they are invincible. The risk taking did not stop there. Unfortunately this is a time when teens begin to experiment with drugs and alcohol. Mixed with the period of growth, effects can take place that will haunt the youth for the entire length of their life.

Additionally, Inside the Teenage Brain focused on the lack of sleep and the ever increasing sleep deficits of children. Instead of the need 9-10 hour, students are getting around 7 hours. This affects all facets of their life. With increasing avenues to divert their attention, this problem is not going away. Some schools have suggested starting classes a little later in the day. Attending DePere High School, I had a 0 hour class that started at 7 am, it was brutal and cannot remember a more grueling semester.

There are people defending their flag on each side of the issue. Proponents argue it aids the students in getting more sleep and positively affects school performance. Detractors argue it throws off other ages levels, affects parent’s schedules, and cuts into extra curricular activities. In a lot of ways, I feel this may be a positive. Students are almost too involved these days and maybe restricted time will serve to limit the activities students feel obligated to join. As a future educator, I have no qualms with an additional hour of sleep every morning either.

The film seemed to show extremely understanding and chill parents. That may be the key that unlocks this enormous door. The parent is best left to lay low, let the child or children argue, and then be there to offer advice when they seek it. As much as the student is going through a new phase in their life, so is the parent. They are being forced to let go of something they have invested so much of their everything into. They are then left to wonder if their investment will pay dividends like that of Enron or Microsoft. In the mean time parents would be best served to sit down and laugh while reading some Zits cartoons.

The second video, PBS Frontline: The Merchants of Cool made me hate corporate America a little more with each segment. I went to school for 2 ½ years for marketing and these people were pretty much exactly the reason I got out of it. You have to sell your soul and prey on other’s weaknesses to succeed in the business. The piece focused on advertisers such as Sprite that focused on the teen market. With teen’s ever changing composition and diversified avenues for reaching them, they pose an extremely challenging task of reaching the market base.

Marketers have had to think outside the box to hit their demographic. The first quality I noticed about these advertisers is that although they were all 30-40, they all talked in predictable teenage slang and used the work ‘like’ 15 ways per sentence. They use what are called culture spies (More like culture vultures.) to go out and find ‘cool’ kids. It seems these people do everything they can to reinforce traditional high school roles and stereo types. This is verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry commendable of them.

Their methods of obtaining information are fairly creepy. One method was paying kids to throw parties and having them hand out various promotional materials at the parties. I am sure the companies were extremely careful (or not) to make sure alcohol and drugs were not furnished to minors, their hands are clean. Another method mentioned were adults posing as children on the net to get to know them and their various interests. I am not too sure, but isn’t this the big problem with MySpace and wasn’t there a little more to the story than just trying to find out what kind of cola the kid drinks? I am sure with the immense responsibility these advertisers feel to improve the world they live in, they take time to properly screen these people although I wouldn’t be all surprised to find them on a Dateline NBC special featuring 50 year-old men showing up on the doorstep of 12 year-olds.

MTV was then featured as a leader in teen advertising. With profits around $1 billion I guess it would be hard to argue. They have an incredibly efficient system fine tend to get every dollar out of students. Everything on the channel is soulless advertising meant to suck every bit of individuality out of teens while under the cloak they are trying to promote individuals and their uniqueness. The network predictably thinks fairly high of itself claiming it studies teens in their ‘natural habitat’ and even tries to play like they have the best interests of their viewers in mind.

Teenage males are a huge market for these advertisers. They seem to have found their nitch providing what they call a ‘mook.’ These are shows such as Jack Ass, Tom Green, South Park, and WWE Wrestling. The concept is show males not caring about the world around them and acting like obnoxious idiots. The problem it is incredibly effective. I counted some of these shows as my favorites to this day and am just as ashamed of myself as you are.

Females are not left out of the mix. They are taught their body is their best asset and that flaunting their sexuality is a way of showing you are independent and confident. Solid role models such as Britney Spears are looked to as goddesses that should be admired. With this incredibly high standard set as a role model, quite possibly our entire population can be have fly by night marriages and predictable annulments every time we get a little snaked up and are hanging out with another person of the opposite sex. This would bolster the booming tourism industry in Vegas. The advertisers claim teens are ‘consumed with sex.’ I think the advertisers are the ones consumed with sex, the teens have it thrown in front of them.

The final feature to the video was bands that claimed they offered a unique outlet for teens that felt they were disenfranchised by society. I took this to mean they felt they preyed on teens that were vulnerable (Probably more accurate.). Bands claimed because their lyrics were not on the radio, teens felt unique listening to their music. Groups such as ICP dress like clowns (Literally) and curse to reach these teens. First I’ll examine why they are not on the radio. It is probably because it is pure trash and a 3 ½ minute bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep doesn’t make for good radio. Essentially these bands that ‘hate corporate America’ are corporate America on a much smaller scale. They should be mighty proud of the service they provide society.

This information first goes to show that incredible patience is needed when working with teens. Secondly much of the material can be used in the classroom. Involve teens in decisions and use materials and technology that is current and up to date. Educators must constantly seek new and innovative approaches and activities that immerse the students in a bath of learning. What works one day probably won't work the next and something that doesn't work today has a chance of working tomorrow. Working with adolescents is a mixed bag of fun.

This turned into a book, I apologize to those who decided to read it in its entirety.