Lights! Camera! Dissatisfaction?

Lights! Camera! Dissatisfaction? For decades, the media such as movies, music, and print news have been presenting an ideal body, personality, and habits.  This allows for susceptible teens to get sucked into the intoxicating sway of the media.  Recently, the media has presented self- harm as a cosmopolitan enterprise that has captured the interest of many teens. They are dissatisfied or despondent with themselves and therefore engage in pastimes that have been highlighted, especially in the media.  Today, between 15 and 25% of adolescents commit self- injury, and with the numbers on the rise, there are many factors in society that impact teens to commit self- injury.  Due to the powerful influence of the media, actors and movie producers have popularized self- harm and made it appear pleasurable and sophisticated which motivates teens to engage in those activities which in the long run will present adolescents with ineffective communication skills, negative relationships, and poor adaptation capabilities.

Johnny Depp, Demi Lovato, and Christina Ricci, all renowned people in the spotlight of the media. Although talented and seem to have the “fame and glory” career, all share a dark secret. This trio of celebrities all went through a dark period in their life and turned to self harm as a release for the pain and emptiness they were feeling. When they “came out” with their self- harm stories, many adolescents were under the impression that self-harm was a starlit, coming of age pursuit.  “When I was angry about "not looking very good" I heated up a lighter and held it to my hand to impress some boys.” Lovato, shared her story through a media interview that received millions of views “On November 1, 2010, Demi entered inpatient treatment for what was said to be an eating disorder and self-injury, according to People.” Another interview that continues to highlight self- harm is the one with Johnny Depp, “In a Talk magazine interview he said, "It was really just whatever [times when he hurt himself]--good times, bad times, it didn't matter. There was no ceremony. It wasn't like 'Okay, this just happened, I have to go hack a piece of my flesh off...". Although teens have been presented with media sources that compel them to commit self- harm, many people say it is not celebrities but an adolescent’s peers that encourage self- harm. Confidently stating a teen is more likely to pick up on habits that their peers participate in, celebrities don't have a direct interaction effect. Even though peers have a powerful influence on an adolescent, 77% of teens idolize a celebrity while only 28% of teens will give into peer pressure in their adolescent years. “People frequently copy the behaviors of their favorite celebrities, researchers found a 12% increase in suicide rates after Marilyn Monroe’s death in 1962”. Therefore, teens are clearly more impressionable by their celebrity role models than peers. 
Not only have celebrities impacted the choice of adolescents, but so have the movies they have acted in. Movies such as “Girl Interrupted” and  “Secret Cutting”  have emphasized self- harm, when the actors commit self- harm they act like they are enjoying it and it relieve them of their pain and stress they have in their life. The actors also keep their cutting a secret instead of seeking help which is very impressionable to teens. “I know what it's like to want to die. How it hurts to smile. How you try to fit in but you can't. How you hurt yourself on the outside to try to kill the thing on the inside.”  This quote from “Girl Interrupted, stresses the secrecy and powerful effect that self harm has, that if you don’t like yourself, cutting yourself will make that pain go away. 75% of girls and 40% of boys face self image issues in their high school years. Although in movies we see teens cutting themselves, we also see teens with eating disorders. Eating disorders are the number one more prominent form of self harm and therefore many think that eating disorders have made self- harm more popular than the media because a lot of teens face bodily challenges even without the media. This may be true except the media has presented more than enough images of what the “perfect body” should look like through models and even through movies. Studies show that before more than half of that teens commit self-harm, search the Internet for how to do it Their main source? The media.

Ultimately, due to all of the impressionable celebrities and powerful films addressing self harm and making it seem sophisticated teens have taken apart in this dangerous activity. However there wasn’t always such a vast variety of self- harm presented in the media, “Since 1980, references to self-injury have dramatically increased in media venues. The amount of self-injury related content in music, film and news media has skyrocketed and continues to follow a clear upward trend.” The 1990s, self- harm in the media was very rare but over a 5 year span in the 21st century there were 1,750 cases of self injury being portrayed in the media. The “media plays a very important role in spreading ideas about behavior and normalizing unusual or rare behaviors.” Most teens will pick up habits and ideas they see through the media. These are ideas are spread through an idea called social contagion in which ideas and or behaviors can spread through a population unintentionally just like a disease or illness. Therefore, a teen that admires or feels a personal connection to the character in a film, usually could people very susceptible to copy the characters conduct, “...media glamorization of suicide, violence, and other unhealthy behaviors particularly dangerous for vulnerable teens.”  Although there are many other contributors to self harm such as illicit drug use which 27.2% of teens are involved with. They still themselves with dirty needles, and sniff dangerous substances just to get high. However, many teens have tried drugs for the first time because they’ve seen it in the movies and how characters fit into a social group because they tried drugs for the first time. All in all, any form of self- harm can be traced back to a media source being responsible for an adolescents dangerous actions.

Whether a teen wants to fit in, they are depressed, or have trouble in life, they find their escape through self- harm to feel a powerful relief or escape from the outside world. These ideas grown in the young minds of impressionable teens have been planted by the powerful influence of media through movies and celebrities and left a harmful effect on the teens. In the long run, almost all victims of self harm have permanent self esteem issues that can prevent them from adapting to new situations, their communication skills, and forming healthy relationships. Each day the impact of the media is getting stronger and more suggestible adolescents will fall victim to the threatening behaviors the media can portray. Therefore, producers and directors should not only consider how far they would go to fashion an engaging movie and ponder the effect these films will have on possible viewers.  Just like you should think before you say, you should think before you let something dangerously powerful loose.