The other night I was sitting on the coach, exhausted from work and driving 3 hours round trip to take my daughter back to college after her winter break. I’m not talking about the kind of exhaustion that we blithely comment on every day – I’m so tired, or exhausted, or some other derivative of that sentiment. I mean EXHAUSTED. How exhausted you ask? So exhausted that I couldn’t even bring myself to change the channel while staring at the television in a catatonic state.
Normally this might not be a problem but on this particular night the television happened to be on MTV. So I was unfortunately subjected to about 15 minutes of their new series “Skins”. When I say subjected I mean like the scene in “A Clockwork Orange” where they pry the guys eyelids open and force him to watch depraved scenes of horror.
The subtitle of this new series is “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”. Which is interesting since there is another television show, on the Family Channel no less, that is called “The Secret Life of the American Teenager”. The shows are very different from each other in several aspects. It’s the similarities that are truly disturbing.
If I am to believe that these two shows represent the secret lives of American teenagers, then the following must be true:
1. Teenagers are all having sex (okay I believe this one)
2. The sex they are having is with many partners, unprotected, and openly discussed with others. Being “slutty” is a joke, not a insult
3. All teenagers drink and most of them do drugs
4. They think they are smarter than and are actively dismissive of their parents
5. They lie, cheat, steal, and basically treat each other like crap
6. Their parents treat them like they are the adults and give them complete autonomy and their own credit cards
And now I am scared…I mean really scared. I’m actually hoping that if this is the reality and apparently our future then Nostradamus better have been correct about the world ending in 2012. Forget dead birds falling from the sky, war and famine…this is definitely a sign of the apocalypse.
I know that I am getting older but no one would call me a prude (I once took the Joy of Sex to school to “educate” my fellow students – another story for another time) but I am actually offended by this show. Watching 15 minutes of this was enough to wake me from my coma just long enough to scream “my eyes, my beautiful eyes” and change the channel.
When did secrets stop being secret? I mean if it’s such a secret then why are MTV and other channels playing versions of the same storyline repeatedly? Hey I have an idea! Let’s keep our secrets…(wait for it)…a secret! If this is the secret life of American teens or any other teens then please, please let’s keep it a secret. I don’t need or want to know and would prefer that instead they seek some medical treatment or therapy or join a commune.
Just for clarification, here is the definition of a secret: “Something kept hidden from others or known only to oneself or to a few.” And just to ensure there are no misunderstandings – ” a few” is not everyone on your Facebook friends list. Not everything is meant to be shared and THAT is not a secret.
Unbound 