Ranting & Raving

I'm about to rant and rave about something that's been bothering me for days.

Before Aaron and I got married, we decided not to get cable television for at least the first year of our wedded bliss. The idea was that without cable, we'd spend more quality time together and less time zoned out in front of the TV.

But, when we do get the chance to enjoy 80+ stations (like this past weekend at my family's cabin), we flip channels like it's going out of style.

The Discovery Channel. CourtTV. A&E. The History Channel. CNN. And of course, MTV.

After watching about 1/2 hour of MTV, I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. I mean, I used to watch MTV in college -- but it was never as bad as this. (Was it??)

"I can't wait for everyone to be jealous of me!" says the girl whose parents are throwing her a lavish $450,000 sweet sixteen birthday party. "I deserve this."

"I told her I would call her a taxi," says the guy, nonchalantly explaining why the random girl he'd just had sex with angrily stormed out of the house.

"My son is a slut" said the mother to the camera, "but hey -- at least he's good at it!"

Wow.

Why am I so surprised? This is the station that gave the world such TV gems like "Jackass", "I Want a Famous Face", "The Real World", and "Rich Girls" -- glorifying stupidity, conformity, promiscuity and materialism, respectively.

In a recent study, the Parents Television Council offered up some sobering statistics:

"In 171 hours of MTV programming, analysts found 1,548 sexual scenes containing 3,056 depictions of sex or various forms of nudity and 2,881 verbal sexual references. That means that children watching MTV are viewing an average of 9 sexual scenes per hour with approximately 18 sexual depictions and 17 instances of sexual dialogue or innuendo. To put this in perspective, consider that in its last study of sex on primetime network television, the PTC found an average of only 5.8 instances of sexual content during the 10 o’clock hour – when only adults are watching."

I can't be the only person who is disgusted by this. The people behind MTV completely lack anything that resembles morality, let alone good judgement or common sense! I feel sad and angry at the same time. I feel scared for our teenagers whose parents let them watch freely and unsupervised.

I could go on and on. Why do we support this? Why do we support people who support this (bands, singers, celebrities)?

We underestimate the influence that it has on our psyche. If I, a well-educated and discerning adult, can be made to wonder why I don't have a Louis Vuitton bag or Chanel sunglasses yet -- how much worse is it for our adolecents and teenagers that are watching?

"Indeed, research shows that watching MTV changes the attitudes and perceptions of young viewers. One experiment found that seventh and ninth graders were more likely to approve of premarital sex after watching MTV for one hour."

It's not cool, it's not right, it's not okay. I'm not trying to be judgemental or old-fashioned, but I think at some point we owe it to ourselves to ask uncomfortable questions - what good is this doing for me? What is this teaching us? What effect is this having on our society?

I'm as guilty as the rest. But if we don't watch it, they won't play it. Turn off your MTV.

(Stepping off my soapbox now...)

Click here to read the full MTV Study