Media influences have exponentially increased in the past decade, leading to a new generation of teens following trends in pursuit of popularity. Therefore, various social skills have become inadequate in the eyes of older generations. The inadequacies have been seen as a creation by our generation, however, this is of no fault of our own. It has to do with the growing media consumption, in all age groups, although the youngest generation absorbed the new culture the quickest, leading to a completely different form of childhood. As a child, my media consumption was extremely selective and sheltered by adults in my life. I occupied my time with my favorite books, such as Harry Potter, my favorite movie, High School Musical, as well as my favorite toys, all of which belonged to my neighbor, Marley. Whenever I went to Marley’s house, the two of us would play with Polly Pockets, American Girl Dolls, or Barbies for hours at a time. To me, it wasn’t the appearance of the toys that I desired, it was what the toys themselves possessed. The Barbies had fancy stretch limos, elaborate closets, glamorous boyfriends, and multiple dogs. As a six or seven year old kid, that’s entirely what I envisioned my life, superficial and self obsessed. These …show more content…
I focused less on pleasing myself, to pleasing others. In fifth grade, when I was eleven, I made myself a Facebook (which was technically not legal). Introducing myself to the vast sources of influence so suddenly was when I became subjected to tons of advertisements, tons of body image standards, and what I should post to capture the maximum amount of attention. Soon after, Instagram grew in popularity, and consequently, Snapchat followed. For a while, I didn’t care about what I had, as much as how I looked along with how others perceived me. My life was excessively one sided, and the rest of the world was