Bagdikian Complains

Bagdikian complains of a need that have adolescents to identify themselves or make themselves cool that can be met (seemingly no other way) through the media and by buying things.
Good point Bagdikian.
When I was in high school I noticed a wave of "cool" changing. At first it was cool to be like everyone else. Then it was suddenly cool to be an individual. And the way to be an individual was to dress differently than everyone else. Thus Hot Topic (or Hot Topic came, thus the changing of what was cool).
Hot Topic mass produces what isn't "in" (but of course, it really is in).
Teens across the nation flocked to this goth store where they found the keys to their identity. They all banned together to be individuals...together. They went against the crowd, they swam upstreem together.
So did anything really change? Hardly.
I think this is a good example of Bagdikian's three complaints.
1) Adolescents have increasingly fewer resources for identity outside of the media-corporation-produced mainstream.
2) The "Cool" available through media is dependent on endlessly purchasing products and access.
3) The stereotypes and caricatures presented do not provide resources for living in soceity (mooks and midriffs do not orient people towards being).
People feel the need to identify themselves and they do this by observing other people and then buying things that make them who they are.

~Nadia