Editorial: Pop culture of TV and the internet lack value for teenagers

By Matt Murphy Class of 2008

Within the last five years creativity and intelligence in television has diminished. Many “eye candy” shows, including MTV’s finest—“Next,” “Made,” and “Laguna Beach,” as well as VH1’s “Flavor of Love”--- all seem to dissolve into the trite theme of making money for an audience. Reality shows are ubiquitous. “American Idol,” “America’s Got Talent,” “Last Comic Standing,” “Punk’d,” “Project Runway,” and “Skating with Celebrities” are just a few of the dozens of reality shows flooding the television airways. Of course, reality shows are not bad per se, but character development, creative plot, and professional acting are not needed in programs about contests. But if a typical television watcher views shows of mindless, prize shows, how much are they going to appreciate the truly classy shows where millions of dollars are spent not in paying for elaborate stage backdrops and models used as props, but in garnering talented actors and actresses, top-of-the-line script writers, and professional executives? Reality shows, although superabundant, are not the only shows transfixing American audiences. Living in a post-September 11 world, the perpetual fear accentuated by the terrorist attacks, and subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, have tainted many shows with a nihilistic theme, as well as a malevolent view towards human beings. “24,” with its incessant terrorist attacks, as well as rampant killings, accurately correlate to events in the current world. There are other shows with this Orwellian motif, including “The Shield,” “Rescue Me,” “Alias,” and “Lost.” Although “Lost” is a magnificently crafted show with complex relationships amongst the survivors of the island, intriguing backgrounds, and resplendent beaches to stimulate the audience’s curiosity, it is the constant fear of the Others, triggered by the renegades’ wanton acts of murder, as well as their secretiveness, that underscores every episode. Of course, the nihilistic and sometimes violent shows are intelligently written, but their themes are superfluous in a world with a very unstable Middle East region, and terrorists skulking in all parts of the globe. The number of shows which do not exhibit either the themes of gaining money, or fear of the world, are few and far between. Medically based shows such as “House M.D.,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and the venerable “ER” offer decent drama, and crime shows, like the “Law and Order” series, “NCIS,” and the “CSI” series are creative and well-crafted. However, many of these programs have been on for several years---“ER” has been airing for a whopping twelve years—and their tenures cannot be guaranteed when the creativity begins to run thin. However, despite the dearth of creative and original programming, there are exceptionable shows which are neither old, nor monotonous. HBO programs almost guarantee astute audiences satisfaction. “The Sopranos,” “Six Feet Under,” “Oz,” and “Entourage” personify superlative creativity and entertainment value. However, these programs deal with mature topics, which are certainly not intended for young teens. So then, if teenagers who wish to watch decent television are not interested in sensational “eye candy” shows on MTV or VH1, can’t stand to watch sad or evil-based shows, and detest those HBO shows garnered for adults—if they even have HBO—what are they to watch? Comedy Central often comes to mind. Indeed, those shows are very funny. “South Park,” “Chapelle’s Show,” and especially “The Daily Show” afford intelligent entertainment. Some people can even subsist on such comedic programming every day. Yet comedy is only one aspect of entertainment: Drama, suspense, mystery—they are all integral to the television experience. And although there are some shows worth the time to watch, they seem to be overshadowed by hackneyed, and uncreative programming—meant to appeal to mass audiences through pop culture, and current events. With media “dumbing down” the quality of programming through television, teenagers, in unprecedented statistics, are spending more time searching for entertainment in another medium: the internet. CBSNEWS.com has reported that teens spend an equal time watching TV and surfing the web—around 2.9 hours per day. Moreover, 65 percent report having memberships on various social web sites, such as Myspace, and Facebook. With about 130 million accounts, Myspace is clearly a very popular medium for teens to communicate with each other, post blogs, personalize their profiles, and display information about themselves for others to see. Why watch boring television when access to an infinitive number of friends (to talk to) is at your fingertips? Similar to reality shows, Myspace is in no way bad; the only connection between the two media is that they appeal to teenagers. Unfortunately, though, Myspace does reflect the progressive “dumbing down” of the media. Whereas several years ago, when students would access legitimate college-based web sites to extract information, now their main source of information is Wikipedia—a commune based web site which anyone can edit. (Alexa.com has listed wikipedia.org as the ninth most visited web site in the world). Thus, with Myspace, teens are not being entertained by professional TV executives with intelligent programming. Instead, teenagers opt to find their humor, their drama, their suspense with each other. Bloggings, and Youtube.com—where anyone with a video camera can record any type of video clip and mail it to their audience as entertainment—are flooding the internet. Gone are the days of wily humor, passionate mystery, and airtight suspense. The majority of teenagers seem perfectly satisfied to idle their brains by talking with friends online; evidently, they find an activity which is commonplace enough at school, to be the most efficient use of their media outlet time. Amateur directors on Youtube, as well as amateur music groups on Myspace—thousands of Indie Rock Bands have found an audience by posting their music on the web site—may argue that their videos, that their music, is just as engaging as those done by professionals. Although decent directors and musicians often do post legitimate work online, and although there are many talented artists who find no problem in advertising their work this way, the garbage out there renders the entire online media bloggings, recordings, videos, and music significantly “dumbed down.” Hopefully, teenagers will always express their social side through frequent conversing, and yes, online blogging and profile personalization. Regardless of their methods of entertainment, whether it be the internet, or television, or both, it is to their advantage not to be swept up in the pop culture of television, which frankly, is not very intellectually engaging. Likewise, the abundance of online musical groups and frequent video recordings signify that teens must understand the difference between quality work, and that which is meaningless—lest they end up only viewing worthless junk.