Representation: Teenager and Young Adults

The group that I am choosing to analyze is teens and young adults and their representation in the media. My first example of this group’s representation comes from the film The Internship. There is a main character by the name of Stuart(Dylan O’Brien) who spends almost the entirety of the film engulfed in his phone. He is rude and anti-social and thinks that he is better than everybody else around him. This character later goes through a change which exposes him to the world and people around him. This is one of the most common and a typical approach used when representing this group.

The second example of this group’s representation comes in the television show The 100.This show follows a cast that is mainly full of teenagers and young adults who are sent down to Earth after it has been destroyed due to radiation and. This show portrays the characters as mostly defiant and not wanting to follow any sense of order in this world. The core of this show revolves around characters making bad choices and further leading to danger for everybody.

I feel as if the characteristics that are representing this group are fair to a certain extent. I think there is a prevalent use of technology by teenagers and young adults but not to the extent that it is all they do where it entirely consumers every moment of their lives. I also feel as if the idea that most of these people seem to have this revelation in their life and change for the better is entirely unrealistic. This is a case scenario that is presented heavily in the media world but in the real world is not prominent. There is a constant lack of any actual events happening in a person’s life if they do not choose to take action and go upon doing things on their own volition, in the media world it just seems to happen.

The representation that I would retain within this group is the idea that they can be independent thinkers and be on their own, but I would challenge this idea that the vast majority of teenagers are incompetent and cannot make the right choices. Teens are extremely capable and they are being portrayed as dumber than most of them are. To further this, I would also juxtapose this idea that teenagers are entirely engulfed in their phones and are negligent to the real world. The problem with technology today is not that they are so engulfed with it, but rather that every area of the world requires exposure to the internet. It is rather difficult to understand or process different things without the array of knowledge that is attained using technology.