Why are a lot of teenagers so easily influenced by the media and trends?

[Hypnotizia]

NOT all teens. I said A Lot. I see it, I go to high school.

[Justagurl]

1. because it is the age of seeking information, wanting to be someone and something, want to impress people, want to prove themselves...and media and trends are the source of such information.
2. because they have time to do so. when ppl get older and have to worry about making money to pay the bills, they dont bother anymore.

[M.]

The media targets the youth because teenagers are some of the biggest consumers in the market. The media is also the barometer for what is important in pop culture.Teenagers are constantly changing their mind, they want to go with what is popular, pop culture. For example if a popular young actress like Vanessa Hudgens or singer like Rihanna, Katy Perry or Miley Cyrus are wearing a certain jacket, outfit etc. girls will go out and buy that jacket (or something that looks similar because most of the clothes that stars wear are custom made, and designer which means very expensive. Trends are generational too, each trend defines a generation, what was going on in the world at that time. For example in the mid 1960's people wore bell bottoms, flowers in their hair, the hippie look, the whole 'peace and love thing'.The 1980's Reaganomics came into play (the 80's excess, yuppies) teenagers dressed up like Madonna, bright colors, big shoulder pads, big hair, the 1990's (Bush Sr. was President, start of Iraq War (Desert Storm, Saddam Hussein, oil fields in Kuwait) was the start of Grunge, alternative music, generation X, Kurt Cobain inspired flannel,messy hair for guys, Doc Martins, by 2000's ( Microsoft,internet growing popularity, emailing,texting, reality t.v. anyone can get famous (YouTube) twitter,facebook etc. 9/11, increased access to private information) it was a a move back to the 70's look, today it's a mixture of 80's,90's,40's and 50's. Teenagers (most) want to be a part of trends because it allows them to share in what other teenagers around the world are doing, plus their friends are on facebook, twitter etc, they want to communicate with their friends. Whether it's a good way (letting teenagers know about the effects of the environment) or a bad way photoshopping these so called perfect skinny models on magazine covers so teenage girls feel the unrealistic expectation to look like these models) the media influences teens in one way or another.