Shut off the TV. “The O.C.” will still be there when you get back – I promise. Besides, there are bigger issues at hand.
It seems all teens are concerned with is sitting around, watching our high-definition, wide-screen, surround-sound, digitally enhanced flat-screen TVs, wondering what is going to happen next in a made-up person’s life.
How about we try turning on the news channels. Maybe there is something more important that we’re missing.
I can deal with people being consumed with celebrities. What I cannot stand for, however, is how nobody notices what is going on beyond the realm of famous people.
At the lunch table, how many of you can say that you had heated debates and discussions? Probably not many, considering one of the main sources of information for teenagers is MTV News.
Sure, it is fun to talk about celebrities – who wouldn’t want to know what Nicole Richie did to make Paris Hilton mad? But try thinking on a larger scale.
I’m not going to lie. I don’t watch CNN and I rarely watch the news. However, I do make sure that I find out at least one important item during the course of the day. I make sure it’s not something from a music channel, too.
What bothers me beyond comprehension is the recognition that every teen feels they deserve. We want to be seen as adults, treated like adults and spoken to like adults, but it’s rare that any of us actually act like adults.
If we want to be adults, we’re going to have to work for it.
All we have to do is watch the news for a few minutes or flip through the newspaper. Then maybe we’ll be knowledgeable on something other than who won “American Idol.”
It’s easy to get a little recognition; we just need to make an effort.
