Throughout the decades, teen culture has been influenced by a variety of media outlets. Billion dollar industries marketed directly to young people, these entertainment-focused businesses seek out trends as they’re on the rise, and further push their popularity to their wide audiences.
Before internet platforms like Youtube and Tiktok opened up the door for millions of creators to make and share content for free, there was a significantly more concentrated and influential batch of entertainment platforms, such as MTV and magazines.
Micheal Esqueda, a teacher at Wilsonville high school and small social media influencer that posts on a variety of platforms including Tiktok, Instagram, and formerly Twitter, speaks on where he gained the most information on trending topics as a teenager.
Esqueda states, “I would say TV influenced my generation the most, but to be more specific, I would say MTV, BET, and I think YouTube videos were starting to become more established.”
Aliya Christian, a Junior at Wilsonville, notes the change in platforms that have occurred over the years stating how, “Instagram probably influences me the most. It’s how I catch up on what my friends have been doing, who’s birthday it is, I always scroll for a while when I wake up.”
With the large oversaturation of entertainment at our very fingertips, the addictive cycle of doomscrolling at any given hour steals both our time and attention.
No longer are we spending many minutes or hours consuming an entire article, book, or TV episode, but now we have “for-you” pages of perfectly curated four second clips with the main goal of giving viewers a quick dopamine hit.
Despite this, Vogue still managed to grab the attention of many individuals, with eye-catching titles such as “Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?” However, this became a wonderful example of the cultural shift from the influence of the past trend creators, to their disempowerment into providing topics for public discourse.
Long-form media is becoming a dying form; pushed out of the limelight as the attention spans of their main demographics shrink.
The impact of media on teens, while changing its form and accessibility, remains the same with its tough grasp on the behavior of the young generation it feeds into. Christian explains, “You can see it rub off on the way people dress, the things they say, the jokes they make.”
The internet has created the opportunity for communities across the nation and world to collaborate, allowing for the creation of safe spaces for hobbies, lifestyles, job interests, and relationships to thrive.
Esqueda, however, points out the disadvantages to this seemingly perfect resource, explaining, “Not just locally but just across the nation, people have become more fragmented and more separated into camps. Everyone begins to focus on what is different between us, and this inherently creates camps of individuals.”
“I think it hurts it more than it helps us. It’s important for people to find their community in order to be comfortable, but I also think that it can easily isolate someone in an echo chamber, where they only hear what they wanna hear instead of being challenged on certain thoughts. I think that is a hindrance to development in teenagers.”
Whether the impact is bad or good, it is so deeply entwined into our day-to-day lives that we cannot escape it anyways. Christian notes how she uses it, stating, “Social media is a big part of my daily life. I use it to talk to friends, keep up with family that lives far away and relax when I’m bored.”
The trends we see from social media feed into an endless loop, inspiring the creation of more similar content until a new trend presents itself. As Esqueda explains the process of his content production, he explains how he observes, “current trends that are happening.”
He explains, “Every now and then I’ll dabble into a teacher trend. And if I’m comfortable with it or I feel like it’s authentic, I’ll participate in it. When it comes to Facebook posts or LinkedIn or Threads, I make more content centered around politics, current events, or education.”
These internet-crazes are much shorter lived as they once were, with their lifespans continuing to decrease as more content becomes available, and more outlets share their ideas.
Christian reiterates this idea, stating, “Trends move really fast now. Something can be popular for a few weeks and then suddenly no one cares about it anymore. There’s always something new replacing it, especially online.”
Social media has allowed for the creation of new cultural trends, and communities for individuals of all identities. “Popular” ideas are no longer limited to those marketed to teens on the magazine covers that sit on every coffee table, but rather ever-expanding creators from thousands of different backgrounds.