Two Destructive Paths

As technology has developed drastically over the years so has the concern for how its

impacting the growth of young adults. In 2013-2014 there were 1.3 million reported discipline

incidents in the U.S. For reasons related to alcohol, drugs, violence, or weapons according to

nces.ed.gov/pubs2016. This can be drawn back to the examples being set to the youth by how the

media is developing violently and provocatively. For example, in the game Grand Theft Auto it

promotes unacceptable sexual and violent behavior. Another conclusion people came to for the

cause of the destructive behavior is the pressure to set unrealistic goals based off of an image

elders create for the youth. For instance, everyone has to be beautiful and everyone has to have a

successful well-paying job.

Not only has there been constant breakthroughs in technology but this constant

progression in technology is developing a whole new industry that the media plays a huge role in

and is consistently progressing along with the development in technology. A good example of

this would be social media; 69% of families with young children under 8 years old have a smart

phone according to Wartella, E., Rideout, V. Lauricella, A. & Conell, S. (2013). Who conducted

a national survey at Northwestern University. (Lmltd.Northwestern.edu). The more the media

promotes violent, admissible, and unrespectable images the more the youth is exposed to it;

making the youth more tempted to make goals based off of others, in other words, this is playing

a huge part in helping the youth set unrealistic expectations.. This creates confidence issues and

sets bad examples. Another example of the media promoting unacceptable behavior would be the

increase of the amount of violence thats being put in video games. According to

bigfishgames.com, American video game sales stayed consistent in 2015 with 13.13 billion

dollars in sales; the top 3 grossing games of 2015 consists of some type of gruesome violence.
The top 3 grossing video games of 2015 were 1). COD: Black Ops III Fallout 4 3). Grand Theft

Auto.

The amount of violent and sexual content is increasing in video games, but it is in music

and movies as well. From 1965 to 2015 there has been an increase of substance abuse, sexual

content, and profanity in todays music, ( www.contently.com). Too often icons are looking in

the wrong places to become inspired to set these destructive goals and it is creating a problem

with development of the youth. This creates a lot of issues with self-esteem which leads to

unhappiness and failure; arguably resulting them to lash out and turn to drugs or violent

behavior.

Another possibility thats driving the youth to act out could potentially be an overall

image that has been set by elders over the course of the years. The American dream has put a

pressure on parents to plant specific guidelines among the youth what one has to do in order to

live and be successful. Setting specific guidelines such as having to go to college to get a well

paid job is a popular trend that has been promoted more over the years. This is resulting in the

youth to become more pressured in making them focus on those specific guidelines too much;

more and more young people are following these, guidelines, for the wrong reasons creating a

new negative atmosphere making them miss pieces of themselves that they need for personal

development in order to be happy with themselves. Suicide is the second leading cause of death

for college age youth from ages 12-18 according to www.jasonfoundation.com. Unfortunately,

due to the lack of development drug abuse among full time college students has skyrocketed.

After falling steadily for 4% in 2014 and remained high in 2015, (www.drugabuse.gov). Young

people are feeling this emptiness and are turning to unacceptable substances or behavior either in

the act of lashing out or theyre trying to subconsciously fill the hole. This image thats being
grilled in students heads is making them set their goals to meet societys standards vs their own;

making their personal journey about pleasing other instead of trying to satisfy themselves, which

creates this unsatisfied feeling preventing them to feel whole.

Both of these causes leads to the same outcome; they create an unrealistic expectation

that causes young people to lose themselves in attempts to achieve a standard or image set by

society and the media. According to a new study from Harvard University, nearly half of

Americas college students drop out before receiving a degree. We could safely conclude a

possible reason for that is making the decisions to go to school could have been an impulsive

decision motivated by the pressure society and the media burdens young adults.

The youth today needs to take the proper amount of time to allow themselves to fully

grow as individuals before listening to the opinion of others and allowing certain content or icons

to motivate them in making consequential decisions. We need to recognize that these decisions

could potentially impact the individuals life forever. Reinforcing strong positive role models to

the developing youth could prevent them from looking in the wrong places to become inspired.

For instance, it would be healthier to positively enforce a role model such as Leonardo DiCaprio

instead of someone like Lil Wayne. Leonardo DiCaprio has constantly shown his passion for the

environment and his persistence with achieving his first Oscar for his astounding movie, The

Revenant. Although Lil Waynes music could arguably be, catchy, Individuals need to look

past the tune and really listen to the unacceptable sexual content he sings about and recognize

that its not something to look up to.

 Works Cited

nces.ed.gov/pubs2016

Lmltd.Northwestern.edu

www.bigfishgames.com

www.contently.com

www.jasonfoundation.com

www.drugabuse.gov