In the media, one thing high school students always seem to have is an abundance of time. During the morning, they seem to have time for at least three major, life changing events to happen all before they go to school, where it seems like the bell never rings to send them to their next class. They can leave in the middle of the school day to do whatever they please, and when they get home at night, they don’t even touch their homework. Then somehow, these characters manage to get into Yale, or Harvard, or Princeton, or some other prestigious institution.
Our generation grew up watching the TV show “Good Luck Charlie.” Through the screen, we saw Teddy Duncan grow and change during her high school years. The majority of scenes were set in her house, where she was relaxing and talking with her family, or out on the weekend with friends, or recording and editing video diaries for her little sister, Charlie. Yet as the show comes to a close, we learn that she was accepted into Yale, although we barely ever saw her dedicate time to academics, athletics, or extracurriculars. This is only one of many examples and demonstrates how these false ideals are implemented from a young age, as this TV show is geared towards elementary schoolers.
In “The Kissing Booth 2,” a movie geared towards older middle schoolers and actual high schoolers, we see Elle Evans juggle acceptances from both Harvard and UC Berkeley. Her college essay is read through a voiceover, and frankly, it is just a reiteration of the highschool drama that the movie was based upon. Furthermore, she spent most of her junior year driving around California on her boyfriend’s motorcycle, once again dedicating no time to her studies. Movies such as this one tend to present high school as a facilitator to the main character’s “coming of age” story and then miraculously accept them into some of the most reputed colleges in America.
Suddenly, this lifestyle seems attainable, normal even. Middle schoolers spend their time consuming these forms of media, eagerly awaiting the beginning of the next stage of their life. They assume that they will get to spend their high school simply enjoying life with the greater degree of freedom that is rewarded with age, just as they watched countless others do.
The whole idea sounds positive so far, of course. But when these hopeful middle schoolers arrive in high school, they find that their reality isn’t even comparable to what they’ve seen on the screen. In actuality, students hoping for these types of Ivy League acceptance letters commit themselves to four years of tireless work. Many get up around 6:00 a.m. and don’t return home until 6:00 p.m., absolutely exhausted after a full day of school and sports practice. Even then, free time is not rewarded to them; these kids spend an average of three to four hours doing homework each night. Such high grades require extreme work levels to achieve; the grim reality is that maintaining this lifestyle leaves little room for much else.
Then, as these students begin to approach their graduation, they realize that their high school experience is almost over. They see that their time has mostly been spent with books and realize that the version of highschool they’d pictured over the years was vastly inaccurate.
Herein lies the danger of this carefree depiction in the media. Students can begin to feel distressed over the stark contrast between their current reality and the one they imagined. They begin to wonder if they are the ones who are doing something wrong because the characters they grew up with appeared to “have it all” so easily. Even once the high schoolers realize that the media misled them, they still crave the experience these characters had. It seemed to be a much better alternative to the true realities of high school. This pattern of thought causes a decline in their mental health and happiness throughout the years.
Watching these characters from a young age has negative impacts on current students, as they are left with standards too high to possibly be met. The media’s depiction of high schoolers sets them up for disappointment in later years and can be partly attributed to the detrimental effects of school on teenagers’ mental health.
