4entertainment
wingspan • may 20, 2011
The B’s Knees What motivates motivation?
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n all of the time that I have spent spacing out and procrastinating lately, something very important has come to my attention. I am a scared human being. But you see, it’s not just me. No. I have become a product of my environment — something I have tried to avoid ever since someone long ago explained to me what exactly that phrase means. Brandi Martin As a toddler, I didn’t touch the stove because my mother told me not to, and I was afraid to get in trouble. In elementary school, I did my homework every night because I was afraid I wouldn’t be allowed to go outside and play. Heinz Kohlberg, a well-known psychologist, would say I was stuck in the preconventional stage of moral development. Unfortunately, nothing has changed. I’m still stuck and very preconventional. But can you blame me? I, as all of us do, of course, live in a world where the government plays “chicken” to avoid a bailout, where the president releases his birth certificate to avoid conflict and where high school students take every AP class available out of fear that they will not get into their college of choice. It seems to me, in my very little experience, that fear is one of our biggest motivators at the high school level and beyond. According to Kohlberg, we should have advanced out of this preconventional stage after childhood, but that has not happened — at least for me. So my question is: What has happened to intrinsic motivation? Is there no such thing as doing something because it is good for us, because it will better us as people and because we enjoy it? Heaven forbid we actually learn something from those six AP classes. I think intrinsic motivation still exists. I think that it is not too late to start making decisions for the future based on optimism, not on the fear of what the future may or may not hold. My challenge for everyone, including myself, and any government official if by some chance they read this is: Make a decision because it will benefit you and everyone around you, not because you’re afraid.
Racy new TV show causes controversy Brandon McArthur Feature Writer
with the sexual content and the atmosphere that they are in; they show what teens are supposedly doing these days, and I feel they aren’t holding back with what they are showing on the series,” Owen said. “This is one of the most vulgar, more ‘out there’ shows that I have ever seen aired on TV.” This controversial show is gaining a lot of attention. Some parents are concerned about the use of teenagers in portraying adult habits, such as casual sex and drug use. “Skins” often shows teenagers, the youngest one being 15, involved in questionable activities, such as smoking marijuana and committing date rape. Some adults are also upset about how the show is obviously targeted toward younger audiences despite the TV-MA rating. Evidence of this is the report that of the 3 million people that watched the first episode, more than 1.2 million were under the age of 18. Sophomore Brian Hecht agrees that what makes this show different is the content, the age of the actors and the targeted audience. “‘Skins’ does a lot of frowned-upon things, and they do it with kids that are 15 to 18 years old,” Hecht said. “I think it would be an all right show if the actors and characters were older because then it would be like Jersey Shore, but they have too much mature stuff for the audience that they are aiming at.” The Parents Television Council claims that “Skins” is “the most dangerous television show that has ever been foisted on” children” and has threatened to charge MTV with child pornography. This threat is causing many advertisers to drop their sponsorship, including Taco Bell and General Motors. Pederson said he thinks this is a smart move for the companies. “It’s a smart choice for the advertisers,” Pederson said. “Maybe in the future, with a less provocative show, they would come back, but if they were to come back, ‘Skins’ would have to tone it down a bit.” Some adults believe the behaviors depicted in the series do not occur, but supporters of the show question this type of thinking. “The parties are exaggerated, like there is a lot of drinking and drugs. I’m sure for some college kids and high school kids, it’s a reality, but to the majority of the kids, it’s not,” Hecht said. “There are always kids who party, do drugs and have sex in college and high school, but there are also kids who work hard, party a little bit and don’t do drugs.”
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adie slowly walks into the house, as if in a daze. She barely even glances at her parents before going up the stairs to her room. After almost being sexually molested at a party and abandoned by her friends, she just wants to cry, but she finds that she can’t. She carefully reaches into her bag and pulls out her last remaining pills. She takes them, one by one, savoring the bitter taste as they dissolve on her tongue. Each one makes her feel a little better. She looks at her last pill, a purple one for strong epileptic seizures. She carefully places the pill on her tongue and swallows it. Cadie lies down on her bed as she quietly slips into another place, where she can forget her troubles. This is one of the stories that has made MTV’s new program “Skins” so popular and so disturbing to many viewers. “Skins” is a new program on MTV that describes the experiences of nine high school students as they handle the pressures and drama of everyday life. “Skins” was originally created by E4, a British television channel, in 2007. Its plot is similar to the American plot and tells similar stories of teenage life in the modern world without holding back or sugar-coating any of the raunchy details. Sophomore Tyler Pederson has seen a few episodes of the original series after MTV’s version was released and thinks that the British version is overall a better series. “I watched the opening episode of the British version, where it introduced the characters and it showed their personalities,” Pederson said. “It’s kind of cleaner, and it’s based more on humor than the serious ‘drugs-can-killyou’ kind of thing. It’s cleaner because the drugs they use are less realistic, and you can tell that they don’t really use them so much.” Many conservatives, parents and even teens believe that “Skins” is controversial because of its explicit depiction of underage drinking, drugs and sex. Some of the common issues the young characters face are substance abuse, alcoholism and date rape, all issues that are deemed controversial for even adult programming. Sophomore Hannah Owen said that “Skins” is pushing the boundaries on things that should be shown. “This one is definitely heavier than other teen shows
students have Internet 94% ofaccess in their homes
41% 14%
more than 23% spend two hours a day
send more than 100 text messages a day
listening to an iPod/ mp3 player
four or more 49% have TVs in their homes
watch more than two hours of TV a day
more than 20% spend two hours a day using a smart phone (Wingspan survey of 716 students)
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more than 12% spend two hours a day on the computer more than 11% spend two hours playing videogames on a typical school night
Students use TV as a distraction Amy Taylor Asst. News Editor
S
ophomore Ali Turner put down her math homework and took out one headphone as soon as the commercial ended and her show came back on. She sent a quick text to a friend and glanced back and forth between the TV and the Facebook page on her phone. Watching television and using other media devices like cell phones are good ways to pass the time, Turner said. Turner reported watching TV for five to eight hours a night when she gets home from school. “I multi-task because it can get really boring just doing one thing,” Turner said. “After school when a lot of kids are doing sports and aren’t free until later, I watch TV, listen to music, get on Facebook, text my friend and sometimes I’m on the phone all at one time. I get bored when I only do one thing at a time. I have to be doing a bunch of things at one time just to keep going.” In a Wingspan survey of 716 students, 49 percent reported living in a home with four or more TVs, and 46 percent watch one to two hours on a typical school night. Another 14.4 percent watch more than two hours. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation 2009 report, 8 to 18 year olds across America spend an average of 4 hours, 29 minutes watching television in a typical day. The study also reported 8 to 18 year olds spend 1 hour, 29 minutes on the computer each day. “I guess my favorite thing about TV is that you get to see things you don’t normally get to see. I get to see things that I wouldn’t normally be able to experience around here,” Turner said. “There are not very many interesting or exciting things that happen around here, and when I watch TV I get to see things that are out of the ordinary.” In the Kaiser Family Foundation Generation M report, 30 percent of 8 to 18 year olds surveyed said they use some form of media while doing homework. According to English teacher Jason Rhodes, watching TV is not always a good idea. “It probably varies kid to kid. There are some people who can watch a lot of TV and still get their work done, there are some who can watch TV and work at the same time and then there are some who should probably really separate the two,” Rhodes said. “It is a bad idea to watch TV when you are doing your homework; people who think that they do just as good work are kidding themselves, although I wouldn’t say that is 100 percent true.” Reading books is often times more stimulating than watching TV and can be a better alternative after school, Rhodes said. “The cool thing about books is that instead of seeing the image, you imagine the image. Your brain is making a lot of different decisions for you that it is not when you are watching TV. It does matter what kind of TV you are watching,” Rhodes said. “If you are watching ‘Jersey Shore,’ that is pure fun, but if you are watching something a little more difficult, then your brain can work. That may be the difference.”