Through Their Eyes: Messages that Encourage Substance Use and Risky Behaviors Among Youth
It’s not easy being a youth in today’s culture. So many attitudes and ideals are prevalent in our society that encourage a certain behavior, look, or lifestyle among an age group that already is dealing with a plate full of expectations and emotions that are running wild. We know that environmental pressures have a definite impact on the way youth shape their attitudes and make their decisions. What do we mean by environmental pressures and why is environment so important? Stop for a moment and think about the messages that we encounter in everyday life; billboards, television commercials, magazine ads, music, videos, retail displays, and movies, just to name a few. Most of these are trying to sell you a product and some even take that further by promoting a look, or a ifestyle. As an adult we’re accustomed to these sales pitches and have even honed our skills sorting out the messages. But what about our kids? How do they see these messages, and how does it affect who they are and what they do? Members of the Lancaster County Youth Group armed themselves with cameras and went out into our community to show you what environmental factors are influencing their culture.
Youth between the ages of 8 and 18 spend almost 7 hours per day with various types of media, according to “Here’s Looking at You Kid—Alcohol, Drugs and Tobacco in Entertainment Media.“ Commercials, shows, movies, music videos and other outlets provide vast array of opportunities to glamorize alcohol and tobacco use. Repeated messages of alcohol use, promiscuity, and drug use targeted at teens, send mixed messages and normalize behaviors that are inappropriate. Forget television, videos and movies….feel a little safer dropping your children off at the local shopping haunt to spend some time with friends? Open your eyes the next time you’re shopping with your children at stores here in Lincoln that count families or young people among their target audiences. The message of promiscuity (“For Rent by the hour” t-shirt), drug-use (marijuana Christmas lights), and a store display that has kid favorite soda in the same aisle as wine and liquor send youth the subtle and often repeated message that these risky behaviors are really not such a big deal after all. Youth found other examples (Ecstacy herbal cigarettes) in the parking lot at one of Lincoln’s High schools. These cigarettes are marketed in a way that suggests the herbal blend they’re made of smells and tastes like marijuana.
The Community-wide youth group is compiling these messages in the form of pictures, ads, music clips and more and creating a Power Point presentation that they will be sharing with the community. What a better way to point out to parents, schools, businesses—anyone who will listen—just how “in your face” some of these attitudes really are, and encouraging our youth to take a closer look at their environment creates activists for change.
The Lancaster County Community Groups were formed nearly a year and a half ago, calling on community members to step up and make their voice heard in regards to underage drinking and other substance abuse issues.
Currently, there are five urban, four rural and one community-wide youth group that meet regularly to network and collaborate, creating a positive response to substance use issues in their communities. Everyone is invited to be a part of positive change by joining a community group. If you’d like more information about the Lancaster County Community Groups, call Lincoln Council on Alcoholism and Drugs at 475-2694.
If you’d like more information regarding the Community Youth Group’s environmental scan presentation, call LCAD and ask for Tara.
