Thugs, Chavs and Yobs… Do all teens fit the stereotypes?

You could argue that teenagers only have themselves to blame for these negative stereotypes, for example the London Riots in 2011 where it was well renowned that young people were the main offenders. This generalisation by the media has had serious effects on communities such as the one in Farnham Common. In Farnham Common I believe that there is a fairly tight knit community, however, since the London Riots I believe that there has been a change in attitude towards teenagers. We all saw the Riots on our television screens and it seems to have had a big effect on the passive viewers among the community. I spoke to a 17 year old that lives in Farnham Common and he told me “the attitude towards teenagers has turned very negative since the riots. I feel that the older generation in the village have become intimidated and feel vulnerable when I walk past them. This is very upsetting for me and my friends as we mean no harm.” This saddening verdict conveys how our community is tearing itself apart with intimidation, just because the media has displayed teenagers in a negative way. This really shows how the media has control over our society and can manipulate us to believe things that may be over-exaggerated or perhaps false.

Teenagers are also stereotyped as being lazy, when in fact most teenagers juggle part-time jobs and their education. These unfair stereotypes effect job opportunities for unemployed teenagers, so it is no wonder that in the period July-September 2012, 963,000 young people aged 16-24 were unemployed. This astonishing amount of unemployment in teenagers is actually down by 49,000 as the economy recovers from the recession. However, it is still a very powerful statistic. I would bet that most of these young people, especially aged 16, do not have a job because of the ridiculously low minimum wage that the government has put in place. It currently stands at £3.68 for 16 year olds and an unemployed 16 year old told me, “I think that the minimum wage is very low”, however, she then added, “as teenagers, we do not have to pay for many things such as bills, so I can understand why the minimum wage gets higher as you get older”. I do not agree with this as some teenagers do live alone and require a higher wage to survive. Higher paid jobs are hard to come by because of a lack of qualifications available at the age of 16 and of course, the negative media representation they are given. As I walk around the shops in the Farnham Common Village, I do not see a lot of teenagers working there; I see an overwhelming amount of older people. I understand that they will be more experienced than younger people, but if no-one gives you a chance, how do you gain experience?

In the local community I see a lot of groups of teenagers hanging around the village. The media would call these groups ‘gangs’, however I beg to differ as I have many friends who hang around the village that are not ‘chavs’ as the media represents them as being. It is saddening that some journalists decide to victimise and alienate our younger generation just to sell a story. We hear the saying all the time that our young people are the future, but it is so significant. We surely do not want this generation of people to be misunderstood so horrendously just because of the media representation that they are given. This can only cause negativity in our society and our local community. However, not all local people are so passive towards media representations such as a local woman I spoke to who told me that she believed, “some young people are misunderstood, however, a minority of teenagers ruin it for the majority”. I agree with this as a small minority of young people, for example the ones that were involved with the London Riots in 2011, give the rest a bad name and bring no good to the local communities or our society in general.

The overall media impression given of teenagers affects them in their day to day lives. People on the streets avoid them and are rude to them. A minority of shopkeepers watch teenagers closer than other people as they assume that they will be ‘shoplifters’ as they are represented as such in the media. I don’t think that some people realise the pressures on teenagers, the public’s minds are manipulated by media telling them that GCSE’s are too 'easy', just because of teenagers get good results. I did my GCSE’s this year and did very well; however, my achievement was degraded by the media reporting that GCSE’s were too easy. A friend of mine told me of her “profound disappointment” at seeing the News programmes, and other friends told me that they were “angry” and “upset” at the media for being so disrespectful of their efforts.

It seems that teenagers can never do right in the eyes of the media; our generation is an easy target for the media to alienate and if this doesn’t change soon then our community may become stricken with intimidation and hatred of certain groups that make us diverse and different in our own ways. We should be embracing and promoting our different social groups in our communities, whoever they may be. 

The way that I look at it, if everyone was the same and fitted the stereotypes, life would be boring.

By Luke Hastings