The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager by Thomas Hine (Pages 190-243)

Summary

   Movies became an answer to sexuality and a new part of a new culture of Americans. In the 1920s, women’s hair became short and women started dressing more "openly" as a result of the women’s rights movements. Cars had a lot to do with American culture; it created a new rite of passage with a driver’s license and gave teens more liberty. College became the ultimate goal because of advertising of college. Dating with multiple partners became popular at the time and it gave guys power over girls and it became a loss of family power over children’s dating lives. In the 1940s, "petting," or sexual activity, became popular amount teens and petting parties became a way for teens too pet and to create a scandal, the level of sexual activity amount teens went up significantly. Then came the Great depression, which made fifty percent more teens enroll in high school. The problem was that high schools weren’t prepared to take in so many students at the same time so teenagers became stuck in a world were everything failed, everything they were taught about the greatness of there country had failed and there school was failing to teach them properly. Several acts and the new deal discriminated against teens in the workforce and made youth a problem. During this time, youth were removed from the workforce by the government and forced to go somewhere else in order to make space for family men. The great depression got families together and dislocated the youth. Many young people became "ho-bo's" a during this era and lived in hobo jungles. School became a place where the rich and poor met, youth movies and comic books inspired youth to deal with all the problems in certain ways. IN 1945, father went to war and mothers went to work, leaving teenagers and children alone most of the time. Military canteens became huge social spot during World War II. After the war, prosperity and money came, teens got married at a very high rate. In the 1950s, marketers realized that teens affected the market directly y and indirectly with there parents and during this time there money benefitted marketers. Youth crime increased because there was a baby boom, long parent work hours caused gang violence, also immigrant groups started gangs and this was popular in urban lower-class areas. Movies also benefitted the gang violence look and taught teenagers how to behave. People moved out to suburbs to avoid this sort of life. 

Quote  
'' The media, which some feared were corrupting youth, had tamed and exploited the threatening adolescent subculture--and together they put on a real nice show" (Hine 248).

Reaction

  Here the author tells the reader the what has caused such a disruption and the "fall of the teenager," which is the media, and he argues that throughout the book especially when television comes along and even before that when marketing officials were appointed to the job. I think that this is a very powerful statement because the media does even today create a view of teenagers that makes them a certain way and gives others of different age groups and cultures a perspective of the american teenager. The media has been haunting the teenager sense the mid 20th century, its incredible how long media have exploited teenagers.