Essay. Reality TV & social media affect teenage girls behavior.

Transcription

1 Essay Reality TV & social media affect teenage girls behavior. Name: Tamara Bechai Student nr.: Study: International Communication and Media Course: Seminar - Dream Discover Do (CMD) Lecturer: Marvin Fernandes Date: December 17, 2014

2 Introduction Have you ever heard of the Kardashians? Yes? No? Who has not? They are probably the most famous family of the United States because of their reality TV series that is already going strong for nine seasons, and they are even filming their 10th season right now! A lot of people have no positive words to say about this family, which becomes very clear when you read an article about them on the Internet. Yet their show has the biggest money deal up to this date, has a lot of viewers, and on Instagram Kim Kardashian has one of the accounts with the most followers; 23m. to be precise (Instagram, 2014). She and her sisters have a lot of influence on teenage girls who follow them. You can tell by the way they dress, put their make-up on and make their photos that they publish. Thus a perfect example of how reality and social media affect teenage girls behavior. Reality TV shows are not only shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians. They can vary from documentaries to competitions to makeover shows to dating shows. You might think that reality TV shows are from this century but they are not. They actually go way back to 1948 when Alan Funt was the creator of the so-called reality TV show; Candid Camera (Hanson, 2010). From then on the formats kept on changing and up to the 22nd century huge developments had taken place. In this last century shows keep reaching new peaks and are successful due to several reasons. A lot of Americans have a desire for fame and viewers can often relate to the characters on these shows (Valdez, 2014), which makes them want to see and know more and more about the reality TV stars their lives. Just like reality TV, social media is also a very broad term. It stands for several platforms where users are able to communicate/socialize and interact with each other. Instagram is one of the youngest platforms and is on is becoming the most popular social media platform. It only exists for four years so far but already has approximately 300m. active users (Instagram, 2014). What makes Instagram so popular is that it is social; you can share your daily live in photos with your friends, it is completely free, its interface is easy to use and it gives users the opportunity to be creative with their own photos (Harbour, 2014). Some people have a lot of followers and this way they have the power to influence their followers. Celebrities usually have a lot of followers because everyone is curious about their every day life. This makes celebrities one of the most powerful influencers. Negative influences So how do reality TV shows and social media affect teenage girls behavior exactly? First of all what those teenage girls see on TV and on social media all the time is what they think is the right thing to do. It influences their behavior automatically (in both a positive and negative way), just like mass media has the power to influence society. This can cause insecurity and a wrong body image (Powell & Raising Children Network, 2013). America s Next Top Model is a perfect example for this case. This is a successful competition type of reality TV where a couple of ordinary girls get selected to participate and become a model. One of the biggest controversies is that a lot of girls get complaints that they are too fat, while they already look pretty skinny or normal according to society. However, within the modeling industry they are too fat thus have to lose weight. When girls see this they might think that being as skinny as some of the models is like having the perfect body, which causes them to have a wrong body image and being insecure while they should be happy and confident with the way they are. Another thing that leads to insecurity is when these young girls see all kinds of photos of others on Instagram and start to compare themselves to them. They feel like their life is not interesting enough and go through great lengths to get some attention. Secondly, a lot of reality TV shows show characters behaving in an irresponsible way (Powell & Raising Children Network, 2013). They drink a lot, party a lot, smoke, cuss at each other and sometimes there is even violence towards each other. A perfect example is Jersey Shore. In this show a bunch of young people are gathered together in the same house to complete work assignments. However, they are more into partying, drinking and the other things as mentioned before. When teenage girls see this they might think that this behavior is normal and before they know 2

3 they start to act like these reality TV stars. On Instagram this behavior can lead to cyber bullying. They see the bullying on TV and the same thing happens on Instagram. They start to think that this is normal and start to post hurtful comments underneath someone else s photos. In California alone there are already 21% of teenage girls who reported being bullied on social media. (California Teen Health, 2011) Thirdly, another result of being exposed to reality TV shows and social media is materialism (California Teen Health, 2011). Why you might think? In reality shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and so on, teenage girls follow the lives of the rich and famous. They have a totally different lifestyle than ordinary people, which makes it interesting to watch. However, it has its negative influences because these girls see those stars spending money like it is nothing, wanting to have the most expensive item, driving around in expensive cars and living in huge houses. Like mentioned before they have a desire for fame and want to have the same lifestyle. These teenage girls want to have the same products/brands as the reality TV stars because it will make them feel like they have something in common. On Instagram users go through great lengths to get that perfect photo and share which product they just bought. This leads to others liking their photos and asking them where they got it because they want it too. This same thing happens on the Instagram accounts of celebrities. Positive influences Not all of the reality TV shows have a negative influence on the behavior of teenage girls. There are some reality series that can have a positive influence as well. Think of the show America s Supernanny. In this show Deborah Tillman goes to a family that has difficulties in handling their children. When girls watch this show they realize what bad behavior is and that they should respect their parents. There are also a lot of cooking competitions and where Masterchef for example can teach them all about cooking and healthy food. There is even a kids spin off of this show. So some of these reality TV shows also have an educational aspect. Instagram has a couple of positive influences as well for girls that are shy or maybe have a low self-esteem. They have a chance of improving their social skills without having to face the other person in real life, which can be a benefit for them. This will give them a self-esteem boost. Besides that it is also possible to stay in touch with friends that live all over the world. Connection between reality TV & Instagram You might think, what is the connection between reality TV and Instagram? There is definitely a link between the two. Who would follow Kim Kardashian or Kylie Jenner if they did not have their reality TV show Keeping Up with The Kardashians? No one would even know who they are and what they do. Kylie Jenner is actually a perfect example. She is the youngest half-sister of Kim Kardashian and her look completely changed last spring. She cut her hair in a long bob, had a blonde ombre and later on she had a green/blue ombre. A lot of girls commented on her photo that they really liked her new haircut and they wanted to have the same (Instagram, 2014). It is no surprise that some of these girls actually started to cut their hair in the same model. After Kylie dyed her hair in the blue/green ombre, a lot of girls started to follow her. They did the same or did the ombre hair in another vibrant color. Kylie also started to wear her make-up differently for example her lipstick. Her lips look much bigger now and the opinions are divided whether it is the make up or injections. However, a lot of girls started to take over this lipstick trend and with the help of different lipsticks and some lip pencil they can create a look where their lips look much bigger. Nowadays you see a lot of photos with Kylie and long hair. Since people follow the way she wears her hair for example she decided to launch her own hair extension line with different ombre hairstyles (including the blue/green one) (Bellami Hair, 2014). This is just one example of how there is a connection between reality TV and Instagram. Another example is Snooki from Jersey Shore. She lost a lot of weight since the show because she got a lot of critique on her body. She is almost like a different person right now and is all about being healthy and sporty. This shows that a reality TV star from a reality TV show might have been the wrong role model 3

4 before but is now actually a good role model because she shows girls that it is important to be healthy and that you can achieve everything you want if you put your mind to it. (Instagram, 2014) Conclusion Overall, reality TV shows and Instagram have both negative and positive influences on the behavior on teenage girls. The awareness of the power of media can make a change in how sensible a teenage girl is in being influenced. The negative influences can lead to insecurity, a wrong body image, materialism and thinking that bad behavior (a lot of alcohol, partying, smoking, cussing, violence) is good because they see it all the time. On the contrary, the positive influences are the educational aspects, and for shy people with a low selfesteem to socialize without actually having to face that person, which can lead to a positive boost. The influences that the reality TV stars have are not limited to their appearance on TV but also reach to their Instagram accounts and their behavior on this platform. Keeping this in mind explains how reality TV and social media affect teenage girls behavior. 4

5 Bibliography Bellami Hair. (2014, 12 14). Kylie Hair Kouture By Bellami Hair. Retrieved 12 14, 2014, from Bellami Hair: California Teen Health. (2011, 08). PHI. Retrieved 12 13, 2014, from California Teen Health: org/uploads/application/files/g9g6xbfghdxoe3yytmc1rfvvm8lt1ly9sr3j369pstkojdly15.pdf Hanson, R. E. (2010). The Invention of Television. In R. E. Hanson, Mass Communication: Living in a Media World (Third Edition ed., pp. 307, 308, 309). Washington, D.C., The United States: CQ Press. Harbour, S. (2014). Books. Retrieved 12 10, 2014, from Hyperink: Instagram-Is-Popular-With-Users-b1737a17 Instagram. (2014, 12 14). Kim Kardashian. Retrieved 12 14, 2014, from Instagram: kimkardashian Instagram. (2014, 12 14). Kylie Jenner. Retrieved 12 14, 2014, from Instagram: Instagram. (2014, 12 14). Press. Retrieved 12 14, 2014, from Instagram: Instagram. (2014, 12 14). Snookinic. Retrieved 12 14, 2014, from Instagram: Powell, A., & Raising Children Network. (2013, 06 13). Media. Retrieved 12 13, 2014, from Raising Children: Valdez, A. C. (2014, 04 27). Blog. Retrieved 12 13, 2014, from Albavaldez.Wordpress: wordpress.com/2014/04/27/reality-television-popularity-in-america/ 5