Additionally, the author makes another stereotypical accusation about teenage boys when she claims that they spend “unedifying hours in bedrooms… watching porn.” Are all teenage boys obsessed with porn? According to Public Religion Research Institute only 29% of young men found porn to be morally acceptable and 65% disapproved. These statistics suggest something completely different from what the author is stating about teenage boys. Not all teenage boys watch porn, some find it morally wrong as it goes against their faith and parents. Religion forbids porn, deeming it be a sin and most internet access is blocked by parental access locks. The author’s stereotypical claim made about teenage boys is derogatory because they would be more likely to be watching television than be coped in their bedrooms watching porn. According to a survey carried out by Panasonic, British people spend nearly twice as much time watching television as they do on browsing the internet. The average person spends about 2.5 hours watching television per day, while they spend an average of 75 minutes on browsing through the internet. How can they be watching porn if they’re watching television?
It’s a known fact that teenagers are seen as exemplary consumers, which is a mocking reference to people who shop all the time. This means that teenagers are “hijacked by commercial values,” this gives teenagers the idea that everything is only valued if money is involved, human values get forgotten and encourages them into debt by buying the latest technology or attire. When the author states that teenagers are “manipulated to become exemplary consumers,” I would have to disagree with her because teenage shopping habits are normally stereotyped on television and in the media, however not as frequently analysed seriously. Each teenager is thought to love shopping for clothes and spending money at the shopping centres, yet is this really true? Do teens really love shopping more than other age groups? As indicated by a market research study by Cotton Inc. of women, 61% of those aged 16 to 24 that were surveyed appreciate shopping for themselves and their partners. On the other hand, that number gets to be much bigger for those aged 35 to 55. It can also be argued that teens worry over their image more than different demographics. Popularity and peer pressure in secondary school can regularly be labelled to teens having “anxieties about their image” because of them wanting the latest trends and having a certain friend circle. Staying side by side of these kind of trends frequently includes burning through money and “the problems of ‘unfriending’.”
Ultimately, I think the internet, particularly social networking, has changed the way in which we learn and interact. The internet has provided more ways to connect over long distances, it has also shaped new habits to interact with people in real life. Those used to the traditional routines for learning and correspondence are the ones who like to complain about our generation's apparent lack of care on the internet. We've all heard the cries of despair focused around people's reliance on technology and social media to communicate with their friends and family, usually the yelling comes from the older generation. We are criticised for using technology, but have to become accustomed to the digital world to succeed in reality. Perhaps it is naive for me to say, but I believe that the internet is a brilliant tool to inform, educate and entertain the general public. To put it plainly, the internet won't destroy our generation, on the grounds that it will make us the most learned, linked, and diverse one yet.
