A stereotypical view on teenagers

A lot of people in the world judge on every single teenager on the base of a single group of people whose actions are unacceptable and these actions which are seen by adults judge teenagers upon this group of people and these actions. These people are known as stereotypes; they assume that every teenager they see is a thug who carries knives and wears a hoodie and does drugs but these people are wrong.

Section 1- Television

in programmes such as Eastenders teenagers are portrayed in a bad way. in one of the story lines, one of the characters named Billie Jackson was part of a gang and did drugs and drank underage, this made the general public think that all kids do this and in the end he drank himself to death.

-Billie jackson

it also may occur in other programmes that i had not come across my mind but they portray teenagers as being thugs and really we are not because the teenagers that have demolished our reputation to the outside community are just a very small minority, most of us are quite decent and do not cause chaos. also in the television programme Waterloo Road it shows that teenagers dress inappropriately and do not follow rules and joyride and cause chaos and trouble which lowers the standards and expectations of teenagers and the general public. like the character Finn Sharkey who is a rebel at the start of his job on waterloo road, he joyrides, drinks and is an all round terror and this proves to the general public an untrue truth that all teens cause chaos.

 

Section 2- Film

In films especially, teenagers are, yet again, spoiled in the eyes of the general public. for example, a movie called adulthood and kidulthood  who trash the reputation of the teenagers of today by showing the actions of those who are rude, roudy, cause chaos and dont give a care in the world. there is this one character in kidulthood and adulthood named sam, he is the worst because he is portrayed as the worst, he drinks takes drugs, swears, is roudy, causes chaos, at he end of the film, he ends up killing someone with a baseball bat and goes to jail for 6 years.

this shows the very small minority of the people who actually act like this and do take drugs. for example, it shows a group of teenagers causing trouble in school and starting fights when really nothing like that ever happens in my school or in any other school that i no of.

- sam (Noel Clarke)

Section 3- News

In recent news of the riots put a massive stain on the reputation of the teenagers of today as it showed that all teenagers cause trouble and act very inappropriately. as seen on television, the majority of the people who did take part in the riots were teens and that shows the people of the general public to stay away from us teens and to be aware because we can cause a lot of trouble apparently. Like on the buses i've had dirty looks from the people on the buses and the bus drivers give us dirty looks and act rude against us which is hurtful because we are not he ones who caused this but what they have seen on the news tells them it is all of us.

-London Riots

Section 4- Conclusion

what i have found out is that us teenagers are portrayed in a terrible way to the public and that is why we have to act strong and behave like good citizens. in tv shows and the media we are shown as terrible thugs who smoke, do drugs, fight and cause chaos but that is not us. in shows it shows that teenagers do terrible things like this and that is why the public think we innocent teens do this when really we dont.

 By Moshin Tayub