Class/ Name

What information are you sharing today?

I remember watching The Merchants of Cool when I was a university student and being shocked at how foreign the age compression issue in America seemed to me.

13-year-olds walking, talking and dancing not like any 18-year-olds but very sexualised 18-year-olds.

How do you think this is related to Youth Culture?

Young people in most modern and developed communities today seem to be in an increasingly sticky situation when coming to terms with their sexuality. Spoiled by the knowledge that they have all their needs answered for, the youth of today turn their attention not at carving out a life but forging an identity.

Is it also related to another topic?

These identities are fragile and malleable, changing with the tide. While the long-time argument that young people are most vulnerable to the various influences around them, including the media, it is pertinent that we recognise that the media does play a part in introducing, if not outrightly deciding, the identities of young people.

Let's share an example that describes how you think this information is related to Youth Culture.

Young children, or tweens, are increasingly exposed to more adult forms of entertainment, through programmes like MTV's reality tv show My Super Sweet 16 which depicts teenagers throwing extravagant birthday parties as well as primetime dramas like Fox's Beverley Hills 90210. While these programmes do not advertantly decide their audience's identity, it lays the foundation of expectations and fantasies and redefines what is considered 'acceptable' and what is not.