Every Monday night at 9pm, two million viewers, mostly teenage girls, tune in to watch one of this decade’s most popular shows: Gossip Girl. That infamous line from the opening credits—“The one and only source in to the scandalous lives of Manhattan elite”—is recognizable almost everywhere. The show centers on a social gossip website, Gossip Girl, where characters can send in information, pictures, or videos about any other character. The character’s in the show not only turn to Gossip Girl for the latest rumors and scandals, but also use it to “destroy” whoever their enemy is at the time. On more than one occasion, characters have sent false information to the Gossip Girl website for the sole purpose of hurting or ruining another character’s reputation. How can parents be even remotely surprised when their seemingly innocent teenage daughters are bullying other students when this is what they’re watching on TV? I admit, for me, Gossip Girl is a guilty pleasure, but I’m mature and realistic enough to know that these characters aren’t setting a good example and that cyberbulling is never the answer. ABC Family’s new show “Pretty Little Liars” also revolves around a cyberbully, known only as “A.” The four main characters in the show are tormented and threatened on a daily basis via text and email by the mysterious “A.” Even shows that aren’t geared towards adolescents are using cyberbullying as a central theme. Recently, the daytime television show, “One Life to Live” created a storyline involving a high-school-aged character being harassed by an anonymous cyberbully.
Luckily, many shows and movies are using their cyberbullying themes to raise awareness of the issue. In a February interview with TV Guide, “One Life to Live” writer, Ron Carlivati, explains that the show has partnered with STOMP Out Bullying and would be running PSA’s about cyberbullying when the episode revealing the bully aired. Television channels, such as Lifetime, are also taking advantage of the opportunity to increase cyberbullying awareness. In 2005, Lifetime premiered an original movie titled “Odd Girl Out,” based on the 1957 novel Ann Bannon. The film follows the fictional story of an eighth grader named Vanessa, who after being pushed out of the “popular clique,” begins being terrorized by the girls who were once her best friends. Vanessa is frequently bombarded by the girls in school hallways and bathrooms, where she is verbally brutalized, degraded for her appearance, and teased about embarrassing secrets. Outside of school, she is sent malicious instant messages and links to a website with humiliating photos of her and comments of hatred. The film concludes with an all-to-real scenario in which Vanessa nearly kills herself by overdosing on sleeping pills.
According to the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, the average teen ages 12-17 watches 23 hours of television per week. Considering these statistics, television appears to be an affective way to relay messages to teenagers. That being said…
ATTENTION ALL TELEVISION STATIONS: If you are going to center shows and movies around bullying, great. This issue definitely needs to be brought to the attention of the public. However, there needs to be some sort of announcement made before, after, or during the program advocating the termination of cyberbullying. You may say to yourself “Teenagers know that this is just a TV show or movie. They wouldn’t use the show or movie to justify corrupt behavior.” If you honestly think that, you, my friend, are VERY VERY WRONG. After all, as the saying goes, monkey see, monkey do.
Thanks to these website for providing me with my information:
http://www.uihealthcare.com/topics/medicaldepartments/pediatrics/tvteens/index.html
http://www.seattlepi.com/tvguide/435084_tvgif8.html
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