RR #3

Harry Chin

Professor Knapp

English 1A

14 April 2013

  

Reader Response #3: Killer Culture

 

            In our society over the past couple of decades, the newest trends have been changing from generation to generation. In the article “Killer Culture”, David Kupelian explains why trends of today are bad influences on the young group of children in society. Kupelian uses examples from his past life to compare with teenagers of today. He expressed how today teenagers are corrupted by what the corporations and media have displayed as the current trend or so called what is hip. His perspective on teenagers is that they are way too influenced by the media causing them to be self-conscious of themselves and therefore somewhat lose their own self-respect and choose to conform to the corporations.          

           Billion dollar corporations corrupt many children by paying the media to help sell their products. These types of corporations are targeting kids and teenagers. They corrupt the kids making them feel uncool and insecure about themselves. Then it causes the kids/teenagers to want to spend money on these corporations merchandise. According to the PBS’s stunning 2001 Frontline documentary, “What emerges in the following sixty minutes is a scandalous portrait of how major corporations—Viacom, Disney, AOL/Time warner and, others---study America’s children like laboratory rats in order to sell them billions of dollars in merchandise by tempting, degrading and, corrupting them”(Kupelian 650). As you can see the corporations understand the mind of a child. If you think about it like this, when a corporation opens up, they are in debt. Many corporations compete to be able to make the most profit. Corporations such as Disney and Viacom need to be able to make their product sellable. And to do so, they must be able to understand the consumers. From their perspective, it is understandable how they want to open a business and make profit, but from a parents view, it may seem like these corporations are hungry for money and would do anything to earn a profit. Essentially, as a result these corporations turn children at young age into materialistic teenagers.

          Teenagers these days are more self-conscious and insecure about themselves. Many teens want to fit in with other kids at the same age. In this society, the kids only want more and more. According to this article, it states, “They want to be cool. They are impressionable, and they have the cash. They are the corporate America’s $150 billion dream” (Kupelian 650). Teenagers are always up to date with the latest trends and fads. MTV states that as of today kids want to have more music, clothing, sex, books, films, and many other corporation merchandises. These kids are the foundation that holds up several of these corporations. The media plays a huge role in commercializing and displaying these products toward children. The influence of the media has a large impact because every teen watches television now days.

           Kupelian’s solution to all this is that all children should be homeschool. That sounds quite ridiculous because it is impossible to take away their social life. This way of raising a child will make them not realize what is happening out in the world. There are many kids such as myself who went to a public school and I chose not to conform to the corporations and the media.