Protectionism

I watch a lot of television, so much that I have at least three shows to watch each night. I don't watch the same types of shows too, they are all over the place from Mythbusters to Gossip Girl to Phenius and Ferb to Top Gear to Modern Family. I enjoy every show that I watch, but some shows do have their problems.


Take Gossip Girl for example, the story of wealthy teens living and going to school in New York, seems harmless right? Not so much. Gossip Girl gives young teenagers a lot of the wrong ideas pretaining to what they should be wearing or look like or where they should want to attend school. It's sending the message to be the best of the best. When you have loads of money to blow, do it. However Gossip Girl has towned down a lot from it's first season when Chuck and Nate used to smoke pot in central park, Blair was bilemic and Serena's alcohol problem. The second season's plot has gotten a bit more mature and sophistocated, but one underlying idea has still stayed, and that's the idea of money. These kids are loaded with cash and seem to be able to do whatever they want with it. Buying strip clubs, flying around the world to find their long lost father, buying huge amounts of clothes that you never see them wear. It shows kids that in order to be cool and well liked you need to wear the most trendy styles. It doesn't matter if you get in trouble because you have money. There was even an episode where Serena got busted for breaking in to the school's pool with drugs and alcohol on a weekend and a student almost died. But instead of getting expelled, her parents donated a large ammount of money for the school to extend the library and she only had to do community service. In some cases that can be true, but that should be a message sent to young kids.

Now a days I've noticed a trend of TV shows sending more positive messages to young viewers, like the show Modern Family. This newly aired show is about three related families, The Father's family with his new young wife and her son, his son's family with his husband and adopted child and the father's daughter's family with her husband and three kids. The show discusses issues that come up in every family and has something everyone can relate to. It sends a positive message to people and is over all hilarious to watch. There is never any drama in the show like in gossip girl, and if their is a overlying problem in the episode, it is solved by the end. The problems are usually like the mom isn't very tech savvy or about raising a kid for the first time. Most of them are generally silly, but very relatable.

I think it's up to the person watching the show to get the message. Gossip Girl does have potitive messages in it just as Modern Family has negitive messages in it. It just depends on how people choose to precieve it.