Merchants of Cool Response

In the film Merchants of Cool, the question of what is actually being fed to teenagers is raised. The documentary discusses in great length how companies and media corporations investigate the lives of teenagers, and what they're "in depth" research has produced. Since the 90s, channels like MTV have created characters that tend to fit under the same teenage stereotypes, and that is of the angry, lonely, and overly hormonal "rebel". The film blames these depictions as the reason as to why teens today are so depressed, making depressing artist like Lana Del Rey and The Weeknd mainstream figures. The film argues that since everything directed towards the youth is pessimistic, that creates status quo and expectation or teens everywhere, influencing them at a time when vulnerability rules their though processes. I agree with the films commentary on the media telling teens that they must be perfect in every aspect of their life is detrimental to their self esteem, but the film depicts these youth as overly impressionable. As a teen growing up with fellow teens, although they are influenced by the media, it seems that the greatest telling of a person character is how they are treated by their parents. So while it is easy to blame teen angst on MTV and popular media, at the end of the day, older generations are to blame for the hopelesness of many youth today.