Eary dating, early love--Who to blame?

By Ralph Miranda
College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
February, 2011

One of the topics that came up during yesterday’s class was that age at which people generally begin dating and start to have romantic feelings towards others. According to Erikson’s stages of development, the age at which this begins is 18. This may have been the case in the early 20^th century, but in today’s society things have changed. Today, it’s not unusual for an adolescent to have multiple romantic encounters by the time they reach 18, and it only continues into early adulthood. What’s even scarier about this is that it seems no one has blinked an eye at this shift in what we now view as a norm. But a question that needs to asked about this change in social tendencies from the Erikson era to today is why? Why have we made it socially acceptable for this change?

The reason why this has become a norm, I believe, it simply because of the media, and the poor censorship of it. Shows like MTV’s “Jersey Shore” and “Skins” are having a negative impact on today’s adolescent community; they portray young adults and teens engaging in risqué behavior that adolescent’s try to mimic. Adolescents are easily influenced in their early teen years and when shows like “ Jersey Shore” and “Skins” are thrust into their living rooms it can be perceived as an appealing lifestyle. Watching the cast of “ Jersey Shore” go out to clubs every night, get intoxicated, and have random sexual encounters, and then get paid hundreds-of-thousands of dollars every season to do so is creating a false reality for our impressionable teenage society.

Just to clarify my argument, I’m not calling for a recall of “Jersey Shore”; personally I find it an entertaining show. I can watch it and realize that’s just what it is, entertainment. It’s not reality. Its sole purpose on television is to be entertaining and nothing more. Young adults, specifically 18 and older, realize that. But I feel as though young teens are unable to distinguish entertainment from reality, hence why they have started to engage in romantic relationships at such a younger age, and therefore invalidating Erikson’s theory.