Impressionable Youth
by Holly Chou

Originally Posted: 11 May 2000

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A lot of jokes go around these days that our generation is raised by our surrogate parents, the television. They call us the MTV generation, say that we don't know any better than to imitate idiots, and, frankly, a lot of us live up to that standard. We emulate our favorite television personalities and copy a few catch phrases, and sometimes it gets us in trouble. But people seem to think that we really believe in everything that TV tells us, and hold it to be some kind of example to live up to. But are we really that easily influenced? Granted, a lot of people out there are morons. But I think that we deserve more credit than that.

While checking out Planet Namek's Gundam Wing message board one day, I came across a post with the topic, "Related to GW... I think.... Stupid Mom..." (at http://forum.planetnamek.com/Forum11/HTML/000684.html). The gist of it pretty much leads to a topic that a lot of people have a lot to say on, including me. It's been said before and it will be said again, but the truth is that a lot of adults today assume that violent and problematic teenagers are a result of influential media. A lot of the accumulated hostility is directed toward anime, for its often violent or mature content. One result is the heavy censorship inflicted on such cartoons as DBZ (and I know you know what I'm talking about), and another result is the overreaction to real life event by adults everywhere.

Reading over the GW thread, people mentioned suspensions, expulsion, and other heavy punishment because of the occurrence of minor incidents like careless personal comments, or tasteless jokes. Because of something in a personal e-mail to a friend, one student may even face suspension because of indirect reference to atheism (in a signature quote from Gundam Wing).

Is the adult world so overprotective and the teenage population so untrusted that we feel the need to keep ourselves so sheltered? This is not a fluke, occurring in only one school, one time. Nor are the incidents of blame exclusive to anime. They are apparent everywhere, and popular media of all kinds is blamed for it. Overreaction to simple mistakes causes a lot of trouble for administration and for the people making those mistakes. I myself, a 4.0 student whose worst offense up until this year was a tardy, was suspended for three days around October because I wrote some notes a friend and they were found by a teacher, who believed that our words alluded to threatening someone's life. While punishment was not completely undue, because some of the remarks my friend and I made were in very bad taste, and very disrespectful, nowhere in there did we talk about shooting a teacher, which is apparently what it sounded like we were threatening. All kinds of presumptions, jumping to conclusions, and false connections are made all the time to make things sound worse than they are, "for our own protection", perhaps, but much to our dismay as well.

A great many various incidents have led up to our schools and parents being so overprotective, in attempt to prevent another Columbine. But they should understand that unfortunate occurrences like that are the exception, and not the norm. And certainly, blame will not be found solely in the form of the entertainment that we choose. How stupid would we be to derive our life philosophies from a television show? And while "violent" media may desensitize us, I truly believe that that is as far as it goes. Desensitize, yes. Provoke? Inspire? Exemplify? I think not. If you are impressionable enough to glean all deep meaning in your life from something you see on television (which has probably been reduced to a ten-second sound bite anyway), then something is wrong with that picture, and it doesn't have to do with whatever show you're watching. If you lack the sense to distinguish between fantasy and reality, then maybe your parents should stop blaming the TV and take a look at why their kid is naive enough to place so much value on the word of a cartoon character.

I believe the best argument was made by another resident of the PN message board, a guy by the name of Destro (The words of his post are reproduced verbatim and with permission):

"Parents NEED to realize that music/tv/video games do not make kids violent. If they would actually take time away from their busy, busy lives and just talk to their kids, things wouldn't be so bad. I grew up on violent cartoon and games, and I managed to get through high school without killing anyone, or even getting in a fight. The problem with society is that no one takes responsibility for their inept parenting and points the finger at the easy target: the media. That way, everyone blames those violent tv shows and never considers that it may be because their parents weren't there to explain the difference between fantasy and reality, or teach them how to deal with their anger and frustration. I get mad pretty easily, and sure, sometimes I want to beat the hell out of whoever happens to be in my way, but I never do it because I don't want to hurt anyone. I know where I got my temper from, not tv, but from my father who has an explosive temper.

And you know what? Some kids are just genuinely ****ed up. But that doesn't mean every kid will do the same thing. Parents and teachers are trying to protect their children (as well as themselves), but that does not excuse the extreme measures being taken these days. You can't stop kids from being violent by taking away the things they like and imposing strict rules and regulations, stifling their God-given freedom. If kids are already mentally unstable, this will only serve to piss them off even further, and may lead to increased acts of violence in retalliation.

The only thing WE can do is learn from our previous generation's mistakes. Soon our generation will be in control, we will make the rules, and we will deem what is appropriate and what isn't for our own children. We must learn to take time to be with our kids and teach them about what is right and wrong, and how to handle things such as anger, violence, death, sex, etc, and not leave them to fend for themselves. If people would just talk to their kids, then maybe we wouldn't have all these restrictions forced upon us, and maybe, just maybe, we could all get along a little better."

This is something that many people feel strongly about, and not all of them share my own opinion. There are just as many people who feel that such precautions are necessary in today's world, and they have every right to disagree with me. But for every person that looks leery-eyed at the weird cartoon with the big-eyed children, or peers warily at a Japanese symbol that bears a minor resemblance to a swastika (this is a reference to "Censorship! What's Censorship?" by Brad Richards, located on Daizenshuu EX's editorial page), or even shivers looking at a picture of Marilyn Manson, for that matter, there is another person who just wants to watch/listen to/buy something they think is cool without being branded a filthy sadist.

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