Are TV-free teens likely to be out of step with their generation?

[hanabi]

Generation X'er here. I was raised in front of the tube, more or less, and there's no denying the impact that popular media has on the way I connect with other people in my generation. Particularly when I was younger, pre-family.

So what do you think? Is "no TV" a social and cultural disadvantage for older kids?

[Rinelle]

Don't have big kids yet myself, but thought I'd comment from the position of a generation X'er who DIDN'T have TV. We lived in an isolated area for a large part of my childhood, and had no electricity, so no TV.

I definately think it has an impact on your social relationships with other people. Even as a quite young child (when we did have TV, but watched a limited amount or type), I was pretty left out of games where you had to match the singer to the song for example, as I had NO idea.

As a teenager, people would be talking about movies, and TV shows, and usually I had never watched them. But then, now that we have a TV, I'm still like that, so I think in some cases I don't have a huge interest in that type of thing.

[moo]

No time to reply in full right now, but as a fellow Gen-Xer (or am I Y? Or some kind of gender confused XY hybrid??), I feel it pertinent to point out that content and the number of channels was FAR less prolific for us. These days, with pay tv, digi tv, dvd, YouTube, Limewire etc it's much more open slather. We only had two channels ffs, and the test pattern still came on from 9:30pm until 8:30am when Sesame Street came on

[mummabare]

well Im am a xer....and ashamed to admit that I lived and breathed Rage...lol....in fact I was stuck infront of the tube at a very early age (about 3) to watch rage when I would wake and chatter, annoying the hell out of my parents.

I would say tho that music had more of an impact that actual programs...altho I did watch the cartoons (inspector gardget )...even now I love a bit of Daria....I digress.

I didnt watch any of the popular soapies, was never allowed, and quite frankly Im glad I didnt.....I dont feel I missed out on much. We watched videos on the weekend and tv in the evenings....but it definately contributed to conversations with friends ie "did you see doctor who yesterday? That monster was so lame"....

I would say that if your child isnt interacting with other teen on a daily basis, and not getting tv, then it probably is going to affect their relationships with other teens, but only for a while...but Im not sure that I think that is a bad thing. Considering what is on the idiot box these days....I only have to look at the next generation in our family and the "crap" they have gone through.....we are talking kids who are brought up on spice girls, bratz, have shiny giny complex....pretty hardcore when compared to my carebares, strawberry shortcake beginnings and later my degrassi high after school viewing.....it really is a different world....how much of it do you want to actually influence your kids?

And maybe if they are around other kids who are "switched off" it might not matter so much?

A rambly post sorry...thinking as I type....

[battlecrumpet]

Are TV-free teens likely to be out of step with their generation?

No - but maybe internet-free teens would be

[hanabi]

Touche Nik. Please tell us why!

[battlecrumpet]

Well otherwise they'd miss out on NP!!!!

(just kidding - teenage pregnancies are on the decline I think...)

Well I was just thinking about things like political campaigns, how the politicians all have an online presence so they can get in touch with Gen Y (older teens and 20-somethings for electoral purposes anyhoo) through setting up Facebook, Myspace pages, going on YouTube etc. Can be a risky strategy cos sometimes they don't understand the medium enough to pull it off apparently.

So I think it's probably been recognised by marketers / campaigners that this is a way (along with FM radio apparently) to reach the younger audience. Political campaigners wouldn't spend time and $ doing this if they thought their pre-existing ad strategies (TV, newspapers etc) would effectively reach a younger audience in this day and age.

The internet I think would be more influential than TV for teens because it allows teens to have access to their IRL network of friends as well as connect to mass media and the world in general. And because it's interactive. I don't know any teens ATM but this is just from what I've heard, and also from the couple of teenagers I knew a few years back - they'd go home and go onto MSN or whatnot.

I guess what I'm saying is, if teens don't have access to Big Brother and Simpsons, well maybe they won't be able to talk about that with their friends. But they can talk about lots of other things instead. OTOH if they don't have access to (for example) email, or MSN, or online gaming etc, what they're missing out on is a whole method of communication (like not having a landline phone for previous generations) rather than just missing out on a topic of conversation. Again this is due to the interactive nature of the net.

[hanabi]

Yes! I totally see what you're saying!

And by focussing on TV as the ultimate modern media influence, I'm really showing my age, aren't I!

[Ali_celt]

hmm interesting.
My 12 yr old is constantly insisting that he's missing out because I veto a lot of movies and shows that his friends watch. OK so he hasn't seen any horror flicks. Apparently that makes him out of touch with his peer group.
I don't really know. I remember what I enjoyed watching at his age, and then I look at what's on offer these days and there simply isn't anything similar that i can find.
Like, Macgyver (go on, laugh!) lots of action and fast paced thrills but no sex and little violence
Where is that on today's tv?? It doesn't exist.
*sigh* and the sad thing is, even if it did, I don't think it would be 'cool' because of the very lack of sex and violence that would make it appeal to me again.

Don't know if I've answered the question at all really.

[bunty]

Um, I do remember giving a girl in my class a hard time because they didn't have a TV (and I wasn't a particularly nasty person, I just thought she was really missing out! LOL). I do think television as a type of media is still huge for teenagers now. I was at the shops with my boys and overheard a 20 minute conversation completely in 'Jonah speak', a la Summer Heights High. At the time their real highschool teacher walked past and they started with the "Hi sir, who's your friend sir?" It was a tad amusing as I am a Summer Heights High fan too . I think the impact of having no TV would be less now than it was for teenagers in the 80's. All the other media types have considerate weighting - mobile phones and texting, the internet with Facebook and MySpace, blogging. I would imagine any one of these missing would impact.