Media+Essay+3--Emilee

Media Essay # 3

It’s one thing to say that teen culture isn’t as naïve as it used to be, and another to show teen life as it is portrayed in Dawson’s Creek, just as it’s ridiculous to claim that Cheez-whiz is made from real cheese. The essence of the original intention might be there, but it’s such a miniscule amount it can’t even be included on the ingredient list.

The people that claim that chick-lit and teen-oriented programs are reflective of teen life are simply overly-optimistic thinkers. Shows like Dawson’s Creek are really what teens want their lives to be like. They emulate their manners and parrot their speech in the same way a hopeful disciple wishes to learn from their god. Instead of asking themselves “what would Jesus do?” teens ask themselves “what would Dawson Leery do?”

It all stems from the fact that nobody wants to watch a show about what we really go through every day. They want romance and adventure; a quirky twist in the everyday drag, a handsome hero saving a misunderstood girl from boring teachers and unfair parents. Because of this, a “slice of life” series rarely features real life. The protagonists’ problems are exaggerated and—if unsolvable enough to drag on for an entire season—interesting or dramatic enough to keep us watching. Their friends are cooler than ours, their boyfriends are hunkier and more attentive, and their parents go out every weekend, conveniently leaving enough cash on the table to buy an enormous supply of alcohol, which is all teens really do for entertainment anyways—the media tells us it is. Who wants to sit in front of the television watching old Mr. Amherst drone on about trigonometry for two hours? If it was really reflective of teen life, teens would get bored with watching their own monotony thrown back in their faces.

For teens, it has to be extreme. If it’s not too violent to be rated, it’s not worth watching. If it doesn’t push the envelope or challenge concepts and mindsets, then it’s not going to keep them entertained. What can they expect from the media next? They don’t know, but it has to outdo whatever producers of “Chainsaw Massacre Slaughterhouse Invasion XII” offered last.

This, obviously, works for the media too. They have to be crafty enough to construct an ideal that people can never reach, because if they could, they’d stop tuning in and experience it for themselves. People need to fantasize about the impossibility of vampires falling in love with misunderstood outsiders, of the socially awkward ugly duckling learning that she is, in fact, a princess. There has to be a certain element of fantasy on top of the humdrum, in order to “connect with the audience” and keep them hooked, because it’s what they wish their life could be like. There is as much of a reflection of teen culture in Dawson’s Creek as there is in Twilight or Princess Diaries. How much of it is real, and how much of it do we wish was real?

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