Media Depiction of Teenagers
Britain, the land of hope and glory, or maybe not. Media today seems to be painting an inept picture of Britain, the land of drugs and ASBO’s. Are we really that bad? Can you seriously say that all teenagers are unbelievably badly behaved even when we’re not! Sure, we as teenagers are sometimes bad and don’t do homework, however, what about the adults who are mercilessly murdering innocent people? Have we simply forgotten about those? I hope not, I think that it’s about time we started to remember those few adults and started to weigh the sides against each other.
Fact is, whatever way you look at it, people are bad. There are a select few that sit on street corners, drinking vodka and use every swear word that is known to man at old ladies driving past in their little mini’s. Yes, but at least we aren’t on the M11 speeding at 100 miles per our and totalling three cars every five minutes. Yes, we aren’t perfect but neither are these so called adults. So to say that we are all “little emperors” is that at all fair? No! Of course it isn’t. It’s only a small percentage of people, namely teenagers, who actually do these hanist crimes. So, stop giving just teenagers a hard time, all the time. Be fair for once and we may, just may, start treating you with the respect you all demand most of the time unfairly.
A perfect example of a “Jeremy Kyle” teenager is a Miss Emily Travell, only fifteen, and pregnant with her second child, a regular in the local boozers and with a reputation not to be shouted about. Not a freshman to the police either, just recently was taken in for indecent exposure, however, I’m sure whenever she isn’t drinking, taking unseemly powders, that she is really quite nice. Also there’s a saying “You grow up like those who you’re around”, what about that?
Yes, ok, using Emily Travell as an example does actually show you what some, not all teenagers, get up to, however, she is only a very small percentage of the population that chooses to act in this appalling way. Most teens are actually really well behaved; they don’t commit crime, they don’t have underage sex and actually do act like teenagers should. However can you even define what a good teenager is anymore? If you look at most adults they aren’t exactly the best role models in the world, so how are we supposed to act? Its confusing; you say act like your parents would; some do and get slated for it.
Fact is, that we are teenagers and yes, I agree that neo excuse for anything we do wrong but I’m positive that when you were our age you would have acted the same, maybe you did things in different ways, however it’s the same sort of principle. If you are fair in judging us then maybe we could return that small favour? Maybe that rebellious instinct that we are all born with is still there in you adults too? No one is perfect, that is a simple fact of life which won’t be changing anytime soon, nor can you really determine what perfect is. Maybe, just maybe, if you were to stop squabbling amongst and actually, shock horror, started to act like adults, then maybe we might start taking you for real as a proper role model, not a fake one.
Exams; how on earth would you know that they’re getting easier? You’re not taking them; we are and let me confirm that in no way, shape or form are they getting easier; quite the opposite really. Sorry and all but when you’ve been writing for days on end trying to desperately get your coursework done and then your plonked right in front of an hour writing exam, is that not a decent enough reason for us to be annoyed at the adult race who believes it great to get us to do a few tests here and a few more there? Also I would like to see each adult that has a problem with the current GCSE test difficulty to get out of their office and sit them; lets see if you all pass and if your opinion changes. I can bet it will.
Frankly, GCSE’s seem pointless because they’re always changing therefore if were all being fair here, how on earth can you get a consistent reading which you can compare? Without a sure set of results you can’t expect people to just take your word for the exams getting easier. Maybe if you stopped changing them every two days then we may just get something to use on a larger scale and from that we can show whether GCSEs are getting harder or as you say, easier.
Although I suppose the adults, our parents, have forgotten the general idea that teachers may get better training than that of 1852, yes, they actually do. Remember those taxes you moan about too? That helps for their training to so don’t be such a hypocrite. They get at least six, yes, count them, six training days a year. Surely that means that teachers are better qualified? Besides why would you want to mean now? You are never happy, you are grumpy and absolutely kill us however when we actually do something right for once they moan even more! It’s a vicious cycle which we can’t escape from. You really don’t even give us a chance to get better since you don’t help, you simply bombard our minds and emotions with rants about pointless things we don’t need to hear for the 50th time. That’s a great example of us being bitter because you talk too much.
At the end of the day, we are trying our best to behave and get good grades, which is incidentally what you want us to do. If you want us to do something else, then simply say. We have no choice but to do it because we live under your roof. All we ask is that you are fair when you judge us because if I’m blunt, you haven’t been and truthfully you’ve just made the situation worsen and made it deeper.
At the end of the day when I sit down to watch the BBC news, I expect to see teenagers being unfairly slandered. I can only hope for the day when our children can see a completely different screen.
