Dear High School Students,
I am a registered
student at Cabrillo and De Anza College. I am writing this letter to you as you
may have seen teen’s address selective styles of how to fit in with everybody;
the peer pressure in doing something that you’re not sure of, social media of
how should we act, listen, and observe from one person to another person. A lot of students follow a basic trend in
listening to certain music to be cool, and/or playing a first person shooter
video game. I never allowed anyone to pressure me into something or a trend I
follow. Everything I do is from what I like and/or what I see, do, hear, and
try.
In a trend issue of
modern teens today. Hip Hop has evolved into a clean civilize trend. In this
century, we are in a Hip Hop era. In high school. I see teens today wear pants
below their waste, shirts longer than your waist, hats on backwards and the
language we use with vulgar profanity. I believe that if one person idolizes a
gangsta trend and another person copies that trend; Either he/she wants to fit
in, was born with the trend from friends growing up, came from family who are
involved in a hip hop style, or is under peer pressure and forced to wear
something he/she doesn’t want because of that person or persons. It is true how
teens are going back to the trend that happened way back in time. Coming from
what I been through. The trend occurs if a teen has friends that follow a Hip
Hop style and speak in a profanity language or see other people on the internet
and/or on a TV. Sometimes the trend could come from the parents. I experienced
a hip hop trend from what my personality is. I feel comfortable wearing longer
clothing because it suits my character of who I am. Therefore I randomly wear
hip hop clothing, but I don’t like to use profanity nor drop my pants below my
waist, and wear a t-shirt that’s very long. I sometimes follow a trend I see on
the internet from what I think looks cool or if I admire the style. I say
follow what you want to follow and don’t let others influence you to do what
you don’t like, regardless of whom they are.
When it comes to mass
production in sales like clothing, music or toys in the states. It takes one
small item from a manufacture to become popularized and soon to be seen all
across the nation, for example. Rushkoff disloses “five enormous companies are
responsible for selling nearly all of youth culture, Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp,
Disney, Viacom, Universal Vivendi, and AOL/Time Warner.” (650) Companies that
not only trend on young teens but adults as well. Rushkoff said “The
documentary demonstrates how big corporations literally send spies to
infiltrate young people’s social setting to gather intelligence on what they
can induce these children to buy next.” (650). Therefore these companies that
produce their own branded clothing and/or music isn’t something a trend would
take place. It’s more of a style of how they look in the clothing or how they
like the sound of the music. Sending in spies that gather information of what
teens will buy next isn’t the proper way to get an input of what a teen would
buy next. A person interested in what to buy next is base off of what the
person want. What they need it for. If this may be a gift for someone.
When the original MTV
aired on TV, it revolutionized how everyone interacted with music and video.
Because of MTV, it spread like wildfire as we see certain songs differently
than what we hear. Rushkoff talks about
how the MTV show is like a commercial that is promoting to the young teens.
It’s like they are promoting something to sell to the young viewers. “In
reality, the companies are creating new and lower and more shocking marketing
campaigns, disguised as genuine expressions of youthful searching for identity
and belonging, for the sole purpose of profiting financially from America’s
children.” (Kupelian 650). I watch MTV from time to time and it just stopped
becoming at music video show, MTV was once a full of music with a video to
match the song. Now MTV is just full of infomercials like any other TV shows with
infomercial. The new shows trend and target more audiences that wants to know
more about basis, like cribs, celebrity gossip, which celebrity has the best
cars and so on. MTV was marketing the music for viewers to listen and/or
purchase later on. Now it’s random shows and semi music video.
When it comes to
trending on what’s the next entertainment for teens. We all think about video
games. How much? Is it to kill? Is a
strategic game? And will it be played with other people online. How will these
games afflict upon us? Will we interact a different way in these games or will
be end up being violent right after? Researchers from Columbus, Ohio found that
people who play violent games for three consecutive days has shown an increase
in behavior attitude and become hostile. People that play nonviolent games
remain neutral. Brad Bushman a professor of communication and psychology at the
Ohio State University said “Although other experimental studies have shown that
a single session of playing a violent video game increased short-term
aggression, this is the first to show longer-term effects” Bushman’s theory of
Video games compares with cigarette smoking. If you smoke one cigarette, you
won’t get lung cancer. If you plan on smoking more a week to years to come,
there’s a high risk you may get lung cancer. As for video games, if you play
violent games within a period of week to years. There’s a significant change in
aggression. I semi agree with Brad Bushman. When people play violent games and
nonviolent games, it’s just the thrill of playing with other people or the
computer game itself; people do show signs of aggression IN THE GAME, sometimes
in life. In conclusion it all depends how their day starts, and who
acknowledges them. Violent and nonviolent games are not the cause of aggression
overall.
Music is a melody we
listen to sooth our minds, to relax and/or to create a dance. Music changes the
way we feel, depending on what type of music we hear. Teens and adults trend
with each other of what’s good to listen to and which music singer will inspire
us to do ideal things. Iowa State University and the Texas Department of Human
Services examine the effects of seven violent songs and eight nonviolent songs
by seven artists to 500 volunteer college students. Those students had been
instructed psychological tasks involving participants classifying words with
nonaggressive and aggressive meanings. Craigs A. Anders Ph.D. of Iowa State
University said "Aggressive thoughts can influence perceptions of ongoing
social interactions, coloring them with an aggressive tint. Such
aggression-biased interpretations can, in turn, instigate a more aggressive
response -verbal or physical -- than would have been emitted in a nonbiased
state, thus provoking an aggressive escalatory spiral of antisocial
exchanges." I agree with what Mr. Anders had to say about violent music.
Music today has lots of meanings to life or stories. Some music are agile to
violence and some are prone to be mellow and soothing. Some violent music has
pertain in violence in the real world. Some people whom listen to violent music
show signs of violent aggression. On the other hand, some violent music has no
effect on another person. In conclusion to music, violent music and nonviolent
music may change a person’s attitude or may not but not all violent music can
be aggressive to someone’s minds.
Entering middle school,
high school and college, we find each other to dress, act differently than one
another. In teens today, there will be peer pressure, there will be body
piercings, and a trend will happen with others telling others one thing to do
and more people follow what that person had said. Society in teens today have
evolved to what was a trend when kids wore a well suited pair of clothing with
your shirt tucked in, pants up to your waist, hair comb back and played Golf,
Frisbee, and Tennis. Not a lot of teens agree with a clean look, others rebel
and wore leather jacks, smoke, drag race, bet, and fight. All that has changed
a bit on clothing and those stereotypes of being call a square or greasers. Now
teens want to party and have fun. Some fights due happen but it’s just for
entertainment or showing who’s better. Overall, teens will explore on what they
like and don’t. They will make mistakes and they will ascend in society from
others who just want to have fun. Companies have nothing to do with America’s
culture, they just want to make a profit regardless what a lot of people think.
(Example the Tabaco Company) they don’t think it will kill people or harm them,
they just want your money to buy their products. In overall in my prospective,
I once was a teen going through all that phase, except the piercings and so
forth. I find all that as a phase when growing up and finding out who we are
and who we want to be growing up. Companies do what it takes to get people to
buy their products but it takes just one person to start a chain of their
companies’ products to spread around each area.
This is what my
prospective in trending is like and I hope you High School students will be
free to do whatever makes you happy and see life as it is as it is still
growing.
Sincerely,
Lexer M. Danganan
Works Cited
Colombo,
Gary, Robert, Cullen, Bonnie Lisle. Rereading America. Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. Seventh
Edition. (1992): 790. Print.
