Generation Prozac

As we are now in 2005, it’s become clearer that the children growing up now are going to be depressed. And, you can probably thank reality TV for this. The phenomena of Survivor and The Bachelor are over because a new hybrid has emerged. I turned on MTV the other night and there was a reality show entitled My Sweet 16 Party. I watched it because it like driving by a gruesome accident that catches your eye. You get reeled in not really because you’re noisy, but because it’s there and it’s just so horrible.

Anyways, it followed these two ultra-rich girls around as they prepared for their birthday party—putting the guest list together, handing out invitations, getting musical guests together, and shopping for the perfect outfit. They rented out some huge Hard Rock café and spent $100,000 on the whole thing. I actually don’t have a problem with these girls. It’s their life and they just got lucky that Mommy and Daddy happen to be wealthy, but the underlying message here is that young girls and boys will watch this show and wonder why they are forced to shop at Filenes’s and have their party in their parents’ dingy basement.

Because shows like this even have the term “Reality TV”, it sends an unconscious message to the audience that it is real. The audience then naturally compares their reality to that of the one on television. A younger, impressionable person may become saddened that their life involves waking up at 6:30AM, go to the bus stop, go to school, sit through boring classes, feel self-conscious because of their clothes and lack of popularity, then go back home to do homework. I can imagine it would be down-right depressing if you think you should have the life shown on tv. When these poor girls and boys grow up there will be Prozac and Zoloft candy dispensers at malls and gas stations across the nation.

The answer is not to boycott these shows. It’s free speech, it’s someone’s point of view. Perhaps it’s not to be taken seriously at all. Perhaps it is someone’s creation that is actually saying, “Look at how ridiculous these people are!” I think the answer to this (and many other things) lies within education.

Teach your children to question things. If someone is feeling saddened by the fact they don’t have lives like Paris Hilton, they need to wonder why that is. They need to examine themselves further because the mind is like a garden. Seeds can be planted by anyone or anything. We’d like to think since the garden is ours that we would be the only ones in control, but it’s not the case. Anyone can stop by and plant a seed. It’s so small and discreet; it may go unnoticed for a while. Then, when the seed starts budding, the type of plant is revealed. The ideas come to fruition. If it’s not productive to one’s being, it should be eradicated. People often just let the weeds run rampant in their garden. Why? It takes a lot of introspection, aka work, to upkeep the garden.

DEprogram yourself.