TeenTimes: So it surfaces again, one year on. A picture that illustrates "the times we live in"; a shot of teenage girls in miniskirts waiting outside a disco on Junior Cert results night.
Aren't we lucky that the bastion of unbiased and objective journalism, The Irish Times, is here to let us youths know that we're such a disappointment? Not that the accounts of drink-fuelled teenage antics escaped the columns and airwaves elsewhere. The Irish media, it seems, has an obsession with analysis, and criticism, of the actions of a minority of Junior Cert students, and indeed Leaving Cert students just weeks earlier.
What a shame that the judgmental focus of society is placed, at this very important time for the students involved, not on the excellent results achieved by many, but on the drunken exploits of the few. After all the stress these students have to face prior to and during the State exams, and after the nervous wait for results, is one night of fun and revelry too much to ask? Apparently so.
The photo used by The Irish Times is indeed, as the Editor responded to critical letter-writers, a sign of "the times we live in"; a time in which there are certain aspects of teenage life that will sell newspapers and others that are ignored. Underage drinking and violence are serious issues and a reasoned debate is needed to tackle these problems, but simply picking out an occasion like results night to highlight the problem is unfair to the majority, and is a cheap and transparent attempt at provoking debate.
Little or no mention is made of the thousands of students who went to discos and parties, who deservedly celebrated their results, and who didn't fit the stereotype of drunken, disorderly teenagers so cynically propagated by the media. The sanctimonious way in which the media points its finger at a small number of youths in such a condescending and "we were never like that back in our day" manner, is, if anything, conducive only to increasing the alcohol-fuelled nature of the celebrations.
Why should teenagers behave like angels if they are to be slandered in the press anyway? I doubt very much that this article shall appear in the "Teen Times" column, since my opinions are a far stretch from those usually expressed in innocent (and admittedly, far more entertaining), articles about the simple things in teenage life. I'm sorry I couldn't write a charming little anecdote about school life or fashion, or music, like recent contributors, but unlike the stereotypical youth propagated so often, most of us don't spend all our time taking drugs, getting drunk, and vomiting on Leeson Street. We have opinions too. Maybe next time, instead of photographing their legs, listen to what the young people have to say. But I suppose that's too much to ask in these times we live in.
Darren Henry (18) is studying philosophy and political science at Trinity College Dublin
