TV Bad for Teen Guys Self-Esteem?

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Ok, so a recent study showed that in general, the more TV a teen watches, the more likely they are to develop depression:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/137597.php

Big Whup.

But this one line piqued my interest:

So to me, this is the interesting part, because for some reason, teen guys are getting depressed by what they see on TV, a lot more so than girls/women. While the article blames it on violent images, sleep disruption, etc., I think these are all cop outs to what is really going on -- distorted perceptions.

You watch various "reality shows," programming from MTV and other networks, you get this unrealistic expectation that you should have a GF by a certain age, a certain numbers of friends, etc. TV's only purpose is to sell advertising, but the fantasy products it puts out there create expectations that reality can't match. I mean, the shows pretty much just center on the "popular kids" from high school, yet they spin it like this is real life for all kids and teens/young adults, ignoring the variety of life out there.

For girls, most of this is pretty easy, because for them, it's a "seller's market," and it's not very hard for even unattractive women to get a BF if they really want one (and are willing to relax their standards). While they do get issues like body dysmorphia, there's more than enough positive male attention to at least reassure them that someone wants them.

As we see on this forum, for teen guys, it's the complete opposite, and for many, these issues stretch into their 20s. For a teen guy, it can be very hard to get laid, find a GF, find friends with similar interests or maturity, etc. NT's go through this problem, and Aspies really seem to have this problem, as all of us can attest to. We see all these images of guys with big muscles, large handguns, and fast cars (to quote Calvin and Hobbes loosely) being the "winners" in life, and as that being something to aspire to. Genetics limits most of us to not ever being able to attain a high degree of muscularity (most muscle-bound folks have good genes, do roids, or both) and have little chance of having the means to a great car or outfit at an early age like that.

So teen guys get angry, bitter, and as a result, depressed (the most common reaction to not being able to do anything about your negative circumstances). What is sad is that they aren't really in negative circumstances, but TV makes them feel that way. This is where the correlation comes in, and where "unrealistic expectations" and "distorted worldviews" (that you need big muscles or a nice car to get women, and that you should have had X amount of GF's by a certain age) come into play. I think a lot of guys here who are having some difficulties end up falling into this trap, and end up feeling like they are far worse off than they really are.

Uh, hello, happy people don't buy as much crap. Marketing 101 y0!

I thought everybody knew about the effects of TV programming. It was a great invention but poorly utilized, much like most of the 21st century.

This is why I don't watch a lot of TV. >_<

Amen, sista.

It's exactly right, it shoves false standards down people's throats and they take as how things are supposed to be.

When TV shows that all that a young man has to look forward to is becoming an overweight, beer-swilling doofus married to a hot-looking yet b*tchy woman and having two or more smart-mouthed kids while working in a dead-end job for a know-nothing boss...

It's no wonder that boys develop self-esteem issues.

Yes, true, but why men more than women? The stereotype is that women are the ones with the body issues from TV, unrealistic self-image, relationship expectations, yet it is guys (who TV caters to immensely as well) who are the more depressed demographic, and specifically teen guys.

I think that statistic is a bunch of baloney, actually. Women are affected by TV in negative ways equally to guys, if not more. Just because they're better able to get dates than we are doesn't mean that they have better self-esteem. In fact, the more promiscuous women usually have self-esteem issues, I've noticed.

So are you disputing their methods and findings? They had a pretty good sample size, and did some extensive follow-up:



You may have a gut reaction to something, but the question wasn't about self esteem, it was about depression. You can have low self esteem and still be happier than someone who has high self esteem but perceives their life to be sh*tty -- the reactions on this board are proof of that. Lots of guys with big egos and big mouths, pretty confident in their opinions, yet not having too great a life, from the complaints I see here.

That's true....at least for me.

I can't relate to most women on TV shows or movies by the way they look and act.

The key thing to note here is that on average women are pressured to appear attractive, and as a result suffer from body image problems, because that's what sexually mature males, and as a result the media (*males have the greater purchasing power than females unfortunately) tend to focus on primarily in this context, not necessarily because of some intrinsic physical characteristic on their behalf.

Sexually mature males tend to want more physically attractive women all things being equal, and with their (unfortunately incorrect) theory of mind, assume sexually mature females want the same, even though they tend to have different priorities on average w/r/t partner selection. This leads to greater instances of depression because the males incorrectly assume that the discriminatory (not the the bad way obviously) standards they are applying to the opposite sex is being applied to them, especially in teen guys who aren't mature enough to understand this distinction compared to other ages/groups. Once both females and males mature, they both on average have a better understanding of this, males especially compared to in their teen years, and the impacts on the sexes tends to even out so to speak.

I would be very interested in another test along the same lines that also include a questionnaire on their attitudes regarding the theory of mind. In other words if they indicated that they understood that some situations were symmetrical, in that two groups behaved the same towards each other, and that some were asymmetrical.

*Probably because it takes a long time for the echoes of discrimination, so to speak, to fall silent.

I doubt that TV alone can do that... most of the TV I watched as a child and a teenager were the various Star Trek spinoffs... and yet I still had to deal with a serious bout of depression in high school...

Maybe TV just fills a vacuous hole in reality left behind by parents actually cultivating their kids to come outside of themselves so that they can do and decide what they want independently. Of course, the more generally ret*d we become this way, the easier it is to pressure us into buying whatever the Man's selling.

^ Good point.

Which comes first; obsessive TV watching or low self-esteem?

Well, that's pretty anecdotal. I seriously think our culture tends to exaggerate the emotional instability/helplessness of women (suicide stats may not exactly tell the whole story, but the media outcry I saw the last time the female suicide rate inched up a teeny weeny bit is a pretty good indicator of the way people think of things IMO).