The lack of teen media for the newer generations is appalling. What happened to getting home from school, quickly doing your homework, and then begging your parents to stay up until 8 to 9 p.m. to watch a new episode of “Liv and Maddie,” “Glee” or “Pretty Little Liars?” What happened to letting a boy band consume your entire teenhood? What media are teens consuming these days?
The teens of today are using social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and YouTube as their main source of media consumption, specifically for their short-form videos. But not like we used YouTube to watch long-form videos of makeup tutorials by Patrick Starr, NikkieTutorials or now-cancelled James Charles or DIY videos, Minecraft build tricks, conspiracy videos, pranks gone wrong, vine compilations or, my personal favorite, the 24 hours stuck in Walmart (NO CLICKBAIT) vlogs.
Young adults are using it to follow the trendiest influencers who promote unrealistic lifestyles and make teens believe they have to buy the $30 Labubu blind boxes. At the peak of teenhood, we were using Instagram to post a picture of our flight tickets using a Rio de Janeiro filter, with the caption: “catch flights, not feelings.”
So, where is the teen media for Generation Alpha? Companies keep rebooting the same old shows and films that no one asked for a reboot of, so they lost their focus on creating age-appropriate media for the newer generation of teens. While I understand this was an attempt to please an older audience, they should’ve focused on creating new and fresh media for tweens and teens.
Teens deserve to have teen media as a unifier. Teens nowadays don’t have as much to connect with each other about as we did. When I was that age, all I remember was going to the mall with my friends, where we could shop, eat, walk around, go to the movies – an activity we have carried into our adulthood – and then the arcade. That was fun. Teens should be able to have an accessible space like that, which should not be centered on having to spend so much money in order to have fun or posting it on social media.
Ever since COVID-19, social media platforms have been the third space we all wanted when we were younger. A “safe” space to talk and interact with the content you enjoy consuming. And during the pandemic, we all had to rely on social media to interact with personal interests and keep friendships alive.
In doing so, we have forgotten about real-life third spaces due to the accessibility and comfort of having one at the tip of your fingers. During those times, the younger generation took advantage of social media and used it as their third space during their primitive growing years. While it was a helpful tool for our generation to stay connected, it pushed the younger kids to jump over teenhood entirely and go straight into adulthood at the young age of seven.
The reality of social media being used as a third space by such young, still-forming minds should not be normalized or promoted because of the lack of safety in these spaces. No kid should be exposed to inappropriate content, which is all over social media. No eight to 12-year-old girl should be exposed to content that influences them to believe they have to go to Sephora to get a full face of makeup in order to be popular or well-liked. When did showing off your flashiest highlighter in homeroom turn into showing off your brand-new Lululemon sweat pants and Alo shirt?
You may ask, why are they even consuming this? The truth is that this is all they know to do because they experienced their pre-teens during the pandemic. They were practically forced to rely on social media to consume content that keeps them entertained and to do everything that they couldn’t do in the real world at the time. Now that the lockdown and pandemic are over, all they know is the media and interests that usually older teens and adults pursue.
Not to sound like the older generation we would all critique when we were younger, but it really is that damn phone. The lack of teen media has contributed to the current teens’ dependency on social media. Teens nowadays are growing up too fast and consuming media that is not meant for their age. When we were kids, being teenagers was all we looked forward to because, to us, that era of life symbolized our way towards individuality and freedom. Tweens these days are asking their parents to take them to Sephora so they can purchase a full face of makeup.
Instead, they should be able to go home after school and watch teen media like “Dog with a Blog” and “K.C. Undercover,” not “Ginny & Georgia” or “The Summer I turned Pretty.” To this day, I remember exactly where I was the night Disney Channel premiered the crazy crossover of “Austin & Jessie & Ally All-Star New Year.”
Teens need a third space, which is not social media, so they can learn how to naturally connect with people and create a community of people they can rely on. Without third spaces, we lose opportunities to meet new people and talk about life experiences. I don’t want to make it seem like social media is the root problem for everything; however, I believe it is the main issue for how kids don’t have the basic tools to adapt to the real world.
Even though nowadays, teen-focused media like “High School Musical” or “Teen Beach Movie” are seen as embarrassing and cringey, teens should have the option to consume teen media that they can relate to and connect with others through. Being cringey during your teens is a rite of passage, and I believe all teenagers need to be cringey to grow up. To be cringe is to be free.
