Television has Been Proven to Increase Substance Use Amongst Adolescents

Television and our surrounding media promote and normalize the idea of addictive substances. Their portrayals of substance use on television create images that many viewers are provided with and can be heavily influenced by these scenes. Coming to the understanding that without change, substance use will continue to grow in society, and so will addictions and overdoses. After exploring substance use in television, there is an increased risk of the use of smoking, alcohol, and drugs in adolescents, since television has negatively influenced the audience into personalizing and falsely relating these substances to current reality.

The commonality of substances has compromised many situations in television. It’s important to acknowledge that substance use in these networks are used for the purpose of entertainment and has extensively grown throughout the years. The audience can often be influenced by the good and bad circumstances they observe and are exposed to when watching television. Although it can be entertaining to watch movies and TV shows that create these references, they involve ideas that different types of audiences, such as adolescents, can take into different viewpoints. Many producers unintentionally normalize addictions and appeal to smoking, drugs, or alcohol that standardize today’s reputations. Recently, it’s been brought attention to the fact that drug overdoses have increased over five times in the past 14 years, which citizens should be greatly concerned about. Television has played a role in the increase in substance use, addictions, and overdoses over the years, and it’s time to interfere and help to find a solution.

Ironic picture of a drug commercial to represent the ads seen today, persuading patients to suggest to their doctor to put on the medication they saw advertised on television. 

Substances are promoted in varieties of television productions, which have been proven to increase their use amongst adolescents and older viewers through many productions such as tv shows, movies, social media, and commercials. Scenes of substance use in television and the media around us have increasingly grown, including advertisements. “...drug and alcohol plotlines are most often mined for humor and ignore or minimize the serious effects of substance use and abuse.,” (American Addiction Centers). As mentioned earlier, TV producers include substances such as alcohol, drugs, and tobacco to not only entertain the audience but to also relate to them. Whether it's Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, or any other television network, viewers are often advised of the film ratings and informed of the genre. Society is influenced a lot by what they watch through screens. Most people can relate to their younger selves when their parents would tell them that they aren't allowed to watch a certain TV show or movie because it isn't age-appropriate. This can also connect to ratings, such as G, PG, R, etc, as they classify the suitability for any age. Netflix also classifies by putting words such as "smoking," "nudity," and other concepts throughout the film. The situation here is that more and more productions are unintentionally normalizing these things, especially substance use, which can portray an image to its audience that can dangerously affect them. Being aware that various TV producers do unintentionally standardize substance use, addiction, and overdoses within society is important. Many people don’t intend to hurt others in the process of their success, and in this case, the production of entertainment. While this is true, it doesn’t mean that the outcome is always the best.

    

Substance use is commonly seen in comedic and humorous genres.

The substance use performed in the scenarios of tv production has led to dangers in addictions and overall affects individuals' perspectives of these substances, which aren't always good. According to American Addiction Centers, the top 3 tv shows that involve alcoholism were Cheers, The Simpsons, and Frasier, all of which were comedies. The graph also shows what tv shows have the most drug mentions per substance, and refers to heroin as being given a more serious treatment than other drugs (American Addiction Centers). Eventually, a pattern was shown throughout their data, and came to the conclusion that strong trends of drug use were used in amusing and ironic contexts. “In a recent study of 311 college students, researchers examined undergraduates’ attitudes toward cocaine after watching three different television episodes that each handled the subject differently. The study found that participants who watched a comedy-drama featuring positive outcomes were more likely to feel positive about cocaine use than participants who watched a grim, realistic drama showing the negative consequences of substance use.,” (American Addiction Centers). Their research identifies what the purpose of this experiment is, who is affected by the substances shown through these films, and what effects and challenges this can have on viewers. The New York Times also supports this idea explaining the approval within the Food and Drug Administration with these advertisements, as well as its contribution to the medical issues the audience faces. When drug commercials promote their products, they ensure to list the common side effects that a lot of us overlook, such as depression fevers, and even death (The New York Times). This article brings to light a new aspect of media other than tv shows and movies, and how substance use being shown through commercials still participates in the growth that is seen with these drugs.