The Influence of the Media on Todays Teens.

Today’s television and magazines are influencing many people all around us. Many teens and young people look up to celebrities in magazines, young men look up to the good fighters in action movies, and everyone looks for the perfect diet. Life was so easy when the children looked up to mom and dad for answers, instead of today, where everyone looks to the media for answers. Not all people fall into the trap that the media throws out there. Media has thrown so many distorted images of suicides, sexuality, eating disorders and violence. Many people who grow up with the media feed on these issues end up with problems. When people commit suicide, it is often described in detail somehow or another in the news. The way the media shows suicides may be helping more people to choose suicide. Reporting and portraying suicidal behavior maybe prove to have negative influences. The impact of the medias influence on suicidal behavior is normally when a method of suicide is specified. Then we have what is called the modeling effect. When one person watches the news and sees a suicide they cringe, in disgust, but another person may watch and want to do the same thing. It might come as an answer to another person’s problems.
A famous celebrity committed suicide in Taiwan the year 2005. All suicides during 2003-2005 in Taiwan were deeply studied and researched. When the celebrity suicide was all over the news, studies showed that in the four weeks following the death, the suicide rates went up considerably. The suicides that happened in those four weeks were all mainly the same kind; they all hung themselves as the celebrity. This is an example of modeling effect.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death in teens ages 15-19 in the United Sates. Suicide attempts are not easy to count because many of them were not studied in a hospital. Most youths who attempt suicide are experiencing a psychological problem such as depression or bipolar disorder, a substance abuse problem,