Choice # 2: Leisure Activities of the Young & "Rebellious"

Preface to my choice#2 assigment:
For this choice I decided to take one of my papers from Soc 300 (Classical Sociological Theory) and make connections to this class. The paper focuses on smoking as a leisure activity among teens in the 1990s, making references to a few articles I read for Soc, and then transitions into drinking/partying as a leisure activity for today's teens. It also focuses on the use of Facebook/MySpace among teens and the popularity of posting drunken pictures of themselves for all to see. It doesn't really fit into a specific choice assignment, but the connections were too much for me to ignore, I had to use it somehow! Enjoy!


Choice #2:
Leisure Activities of the Young and "Rebellious"

Adolescence is a time when teenagers, both male and female are trying to determine where they fit into society. In high school especially there is a powerful emphasis on finding a place to fit in among peers. Boys tend to have an easier time, many being heavily involved in sports and forming friendships along the way. For many girls, this task is much more difficult. High school girls tend to fall into cliques based on outward appearances. The groups have not changed much over time, the cheerleaders, popular girls, geeks, so on and so forth. According to the article by Wearing and Wearing, girls also find a place among their peers by following the dominant ideologies of that group. In the 1990s especially, girls found acceptance through the image created by lighting up a cigarette. Currently, many teenage girls find that same acceptance through other leisure activities such as drinking and partying.

Smoking can be viewed as a fashion accessory for these girls in many ways. According to the article, “Here we can see that for adolescent girls, unsure of their identity, smoking can be a commodified and glamorous fashion accessory, which has the illusion of the assertation of individuality, while receiving the support of the group” (Wearing 4). For many teenage girls, being part of a group or being viewed as popular is essential. Throughout high school, image is everything, and through smoking, girls were able to portray an image of maturity, sophistication and glamour. At least that is what the cigarette ads and the media lead them to believe. Smoking takes on a new life with these young girls, turning into an element of fashion, such as the latest designer bag. A fashion accessory that includes a girl in her desired group, or puts her above her peers in a coveted position of popularity.

This conspicuous consumption that is cigarette smoking, is more about the notion that the girls ability to smoke, rather than the actual act of smoking. Veblen’s idea of conspicuous consumption is a factor in this social phenomenon among young girls. According to Wearing and Wearing there is an image created of defiance and rebellion, but also sophistication, which is acquired through smoking. As stated in the article, “We suggest that, for the adolescent women with whom we are concerned, smoking as a leisure activity may have short term benefits in establishing status among peers and autonomy from parental figures and in providing a form of resistance to prissy, confining ‘good girl images” (Wearing, 3). For the girls who are smoking, the desired appearance is more important and the short term benefits that follow it, than the years of addiction or illness that may follow.

Currently, among teenage girls especially, drinking and partying has become very popular. Since the introduction of Myspace and Facebook, two social networking websites, very popular among teenagers and college students, many users have begun posting drunken and completely embarrassing self-portraits. In my opinion, drinking and then posting the evidence on the internet for all to see has become a contemporary form of leisure, one that is beginning to rival smoking. As Digital Natives, these teens are taking pictures on their digital cameras at parties and then uploading them directly to Facebook or MySpace the next day; well, after the hangover is gone that is.

Many high school and college students, especially girls are posting pictures of themselves and/or their friends, drunk, sometimes half dressed and just completely a mess. Even though this may sound like a destruction of personal reputation, these images are praised by the girls’ friends online. The girls then receive floods of comments about the pictures, creating the notion that posting drunken, half-naked pictures online equals instant popularity. According to the article, “Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace” comments are used as signs of affection and means of motivation for the teenage users. The comments posted in response to these pictures, praise the girls in them and just further reinforce that this is a positive activity, which in the long run it is not.
Through the 1990s when smoking as a leisure activity served as a fashion accessory and now with drunken pictures, there is a common theme. That self-destruction is the only means of acceptance into a social group for teenage girls. Smoking creates many health hazards and triggers pre-mature aging, but that is not on the minds of the girls who smoke, there is only room for acceptance. Drinking in excess causes countless hazards for young girls, let alone the posting of drunken pictures online. There is no telling who can get their hands on those pictures after they are posted, that is what these girls should be worried about.

This all ties into a point made by Wearing and Wearing, “In adolescence then, girls using smoking behavior as a leisure activity are trying on identities into which they may develop and which they may pursue throughout their adult lives” (Wearing,3). There is no question about it; the teenage years are a time for trying out different identities and trying to determine which the right fit is. Some girls find that fit in a less rebellious manner, connecting with others through meaningful activities, such as clubs and sports. While others go a different route, into smoking and the party identity. Throughout this process, hopefully the girls are able to determine which identity will help them in their adult lives.