Listen Up! Youth Media Network

As I searched through the site I came across a video that I was particulary interested in. The video was People or puppets http://www.listenup.org/screeningroom/view.php?media=6c23b40df36787c54d80a3f3e5fb6cec. In this video they spoke with teens and asked them what some of their favorite shows and websites were. Many of the teens talked about shows like My Super Sweet Sixteen and MySpace. One of the teens talked about how on My Super Sweet Sixteen, one kid on the show was given an expensive car for his birthday and how his dad has been working his whole life and is driving around in an old car. He says how they way that they are portraying those teens is setting an unrealistic example to viewers. Also the viedo discussed body image and how the ideal body image for women has gone down in size, but for men, it has gone up as men are expected to be muscular. I liked how in the video it showed clips from movies in the 50's when Marilyn Monroe's body image was ideal. This was an image of a healthy, "normal" sized woman. In this video I feel that teens are trying to say that the images that the media directs toward teens, are unrealistic to what teens look and act like. The teens that created this viedo are trying to show the history of teens and television and how the media affects them. Shows like My Super Sweet Sixteen set an unrealistic example of the lifestyle of a teenager. The video is trying to prove that media has a strong hold on youth culture.