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May 21, 2009
By Martha Perez
As the teenagers in our society grow and develop, they begin to form criteria that has been either influenced by pop culture or by traditional standards and values within their own families and cultures. Today’s cultural development is very different than years past.
This change of mindset can be attributed to the media and the influence it has on its audience.
“Teens are more interested in pop culture because they care more about physical appearance, looks, commodity and money. They don’t consider what really is important in life,” English teacher Bjorn Anderson said.
People have always been interested in the information that the media has to impart on them, but teens of this generation seem to be more interested in pop culture media and news.
“I think that teens are less interested in truly important news because they feel that it doesn’t affect them individually, so they just don’t care as much,” senior Matteo Leon Valencia said.
Teens look up to celebreties like Zac Efron and Miley Cyrus as role models and become more interested in their lives than in other news. For instance, news such as what happened on May 13, 2009 in Miami, Florida when an overloaded boat that was illegally transporting about thirty people from Haiti to Miami sunk off Miami’s coast, causing the death of nine, happens to be less relevant to teens.
Teens need to make changes to better society.