Dear Media,
I just don’t understand how you could be so selfish! You make movies, TV shows, magazines, music, and more, and don’t even worry at all about what messages you’re sending people! All you do is try to make money, and the sad thing is that it works. You produce movies and television shows full of cussing, violence, and sex that are watched by millions of people and you don’t think about how people just absorb whatever you say. There are so many teenagers who get most of their influence from you, and all you put in their heads are bad words, fighting, drugs, and casual sex. Everyone talks about how kids are the future, but what are you doing to make sure that future is good?! Your plan is just to make the most money you possibly can for yourself and make the worst future you possibly can for others. Popular magazines focus on looks and celebrities, ignoring the important things that teenagers should learn and focus on. They read all about what pop icons are doing, wearing, and who they’re going out with. From those stories, they find out what society thinks they themselves are supposed to act like, look like, and who they should be friends with and go out with. Teenagers get the idea that physical looks are the most important thing and that’s how they judge the people around them. If relationships are based on appearance, no wonder one out of every two marriages ends in divorce! Advertisements, whether in magazines or on TV, are full of images degrading women, showing them wearing barely anything (if anything at all), using their bodies to advertise unrelated products. Some music is full of swear words, drug or sex related content, and negative ideas, and let’s not even get started on some of those hip hop music videos! Teenagers just absorb in these ideas, without even realizing it. They spend all their free time listening to music, watching TV, going to see movies, and reading magazines, and THIS is what you give them?! All you do is think of the money you’re making from stuffing bad ideas into people’s brains! If you get nothing else from this letter, I just hope you realize that the stupid decisions you make influence others, and if our future goes down the drain, you can thank yourself.
Sincerely,
Melinda

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