Who Wants to be a Teenager Forever?
Living with a teenager is an absolutely brutal experience. They know all, we know nothing. They are smart, we are impossibly short sighted. They are always right, and we are always flummoxed. The world they choose to view is not the world we live in (for those of us that grew up). Our values and opinions are tested daily, and many times not in a good way. Everything, unfortunately, is unbalanced and it can be at times overwhelming. But this post isn’t about teenagers and the anguish they cause their parents who are usually just trying to do their best and hang on. This post is about the need to give better examples of tolerance and active listening.
I watch the local news every day, it’s how I try to stay up to date in my little corner of the world. Because of this habit, there are several days that the national news programs that come on after are running while I am getting around for work. If there is an interesting headline or story, sometimes I watch and listen. I try not to do this very often. For starters, I don’t want to be late for work. But honestly, most times it is because I just don’t have an appetite for what these programs are serving.
Unbalanced and sensationalized reporting best serves sponsors. Facts, true accounts of events, and neutrality better serve the viewer. Viewership gets ratings, sponsors pay salaires. There are issues with many machines, and I don’t claim to be a mechanic.
Some of the best stories from national news shows are pre-recorded. Many of them are feel-good tales, but some are also hard reporting on matters that are socially, historically or culturally relevant. This is because the team of individuals assigned to these tasks took the time and had the passion to get some great information to the viewer in a visual format. I really appreciate this kind of reporting and enjoy seeing a multi perspective presentation done well.
The other side of the coin for me are the live interviews. “Live” is itself not a simple term anymore, as many times there are pre-interviews done to gather information prior to a televised interview. Both sides sometimes are well researched in the area of the discussion as well. However, there are frequently ambush style interviews where questions are stacked up three, four, or even five questions deep without giving adequate time for the other individual to respond. In this style of interview I find myself cringing, but not usually because of the subject matter. Getting the whole story is a difficult thing to do when one side of a discussion has a clear agenda. Providing answers should not feel like a contest to see who is more or less right or righteous. The results can be very entertaining, which is why they are not going anywhere any time soon. But what I feel this style does is perpetuate the worldview of the ‘Forever Teenager’.
That worldview is exactly what I discussed in the beginning, and for those of us that do not live in the world of ‘you’re either with me or against me’ it can be staggering. Can tolerance only mean you tolerate others when it is convenient? Can a group of people who think one way so thoroughly negate a group of other people who think another way? These are not easy questions, and the answers will not be the same for all of us. BUT THAT IS TOTALLY OKAY!
Teenagers are sponges, and for good or bad they take what they see and hear all around them and turn it into how they interpret the world and choose to interact with others. They are also terrible listeners (especially when you ask them about chores). So when I see an ambush interview one of the reasons I cringe is because I see a teenage girl in our house who, when she isn’t glued to her phone, might look up one day and see this type of entertainment and think that is how you obtain a story from someone they may not agree with. I believe it is our job to show them a better way and to expand their perceptions of what the world is and can be. I might succeed, or I might fail, but I guarantee that I will be trying.
Adolescence can be tough, isolating and a rollercoaster of emotions. I don’t think I have ever met anyone who wanted to go through that part of their life again. So maybe if we teach each other better ways to report, record, and obtain stories we can at least see a change in the ‘Forever Teenager’ worldview.
