Glee

During the past year we’ve seen multiple attempts by broadcast networks to integrate social media into television programming. You may recall ABC’s promotion of an app that provided broadcast viewers with synchronized interactive content for My Generation. Glee, which airs on Fox, also tried to extend the viewer experience from television to the Internet by integrating QR codes into commercials. Most recently, MTV and VH1 announced their partnership with Foursquare to bring in social gaming across television, online and mobile entertainment for a “heightened fan-experience.”

Double Feature

Looking at recent viewer usage statistics, it is clear that there’s good reason for this shift…

1. If you’re like most Americans, you spend on average 2.8 hours of television per day watching shows and consuming nearly 4.5 hours of video on YouTube as well as 3.1 hours of content on Hulu per month.

2. Odds are that you also own multiple devices that afford you access to video and can help to deepen your engagement with a particular show.

In fact, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, “Many devices have become popular across generations, with a majority of adults now owning cell phones, laptops and desktop computers. Younger adults are leading the way in increased mobility, preferring laptops to desktops and using their cell phones for a variety of functions, including internet, email, music, games and video.”

“We recognize that our audiences are no longer just sitting on the couch watching our programming,” said Kristin Frank, general manager and senior vice president of MTV and VH1 Digital, New York. “We know that they increasingly have a laptop and a mobile device with them while they watch and are consistently multitasking in their lives."

Time to Change the Channel?

I am left wondering where this shift will take us. After all, our society loves to not only consume content, but also to actively engage and participate in the creation of that content.

This wholesale change in how we not only consume, but also create media hit home for me when I attended a session called “Taking Videos Beyond YouTube” at the recent Nonprofit Technology Conference. There, Ben Moskowitz of the Mozilla Foundation cautioned, “You can’t be the only provider of your media” in today’s multi-media and multi-platform world. Likewise, as a consumer you cannot be expected to view all media from just one provider when so many choices exist and are readily accessible.

Pass the Popcorn

Taking the next step, Mozilla created an innovative new platform—Popcornjs.org, which takes integration of broadcast and social media to the next level. Designed to seamlessly integrate online content into videos, video creators can now enhance their creations with Wikipedia pages, Google earth maps, Flickr photo streams, Twitter feeds, etc. making for a much more integrated and active experience. While currently in beta format, the platform is vying to change overall engagement.

The possibilities are literally endless when it comes to the synchronization of video and web content in this virtual “Choose Your Own Adventure” for videos. The tool is not just for entertainment purposes either, when it comes to creating compelling content this medium will no doubt be an effective tool for social change advocates.

What do you think... how might you use a tool such as Popcorn? How do you think the increasing integration of online content into more traditional forms of media will change how we consume information?

“A brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse.”  Quick, what legendary piece of pop culture multimedia am I referencing?

A - Beverly Hills 90210

B - Goonies

C - Glee

D - The Breakfast Club

E - All of the Above

 

If you answered E, I hate to tell you that you are wrong (technically correct, but wrong nevertheless).

The tag line is actually straight from the poster for the landmark 1985 coming of age film, The Breakfast Club. This cult classic recently celebrated its 25^th anniversary, which provided for a moment of reflection of its cultural impact on today’s young adults. 

In retrospect, The Breakfast Club and more broadly John Hughes—writer and director of the film—helped to define the 1980’s through a dynamic story line that resonated with a generation. The film gave rise to a cast of characters and created a set of identities for young adults that would live on to influence the media and overall culture.

Awards, accolades and nostalgia aside… Was this legacy of young adult stereotypes—the nerd, punk, jock and so on—necessarily a good thing for the generations that followed? What effect did it have on today’s Millennials?

Based on my own healthy consumption of pop culture and media, I am most surprised at the longevity of these stereotypes. I believe that while times and generational titles may have changed over the last 25 years, the way in which young adults are portrayed in media and viewed by society has not. Since the movie’s release, much of mainstream media continues to reinforce the same fundamental stereotypes—for better or for worse. In fact, many of these caricatures are to this day portrayed in popular, modern-day television shows such as Glee, Real World, Beavis and Butthead, Freaks and Geeks and My So-called Life just to name a few.

Do Millennials actually self-identify with the characters and roles portrayed in these movies or shows? Is that why these characterizations persist?

ABC recently also debuted a show called My Generation—a documentary style television series that followed the lives of nine high school students from the class of 2000. The show followed up with each of them 10 years later to find out where they are now. During the opening of the pilot you see the following labels next to each character, “the over-achiever, the rock star, the jock, the nerd, the beauty queen, the punk...” and so on. Sounds a little familiar, doesn’t it? ABC recently cancelled the show due to low ratings. I guess that it just didn’t resonate with viewers, including those who are supposed to identify with the characters—the Millennials.

How has the media impacted how Millennials view themselves and are viewed by others?

By the end of The Breakfast Club, stereotypes are crushed and both the characters and viewers are transformed by the experience—each character realizes that they are more alike than any of them ever suspected and not defined by their respective “labels.” In the famous last line of the movie, the characters declare that, “You see us as you want to see us. In the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.” In many ways this sentiment is still very relevant to today’s young adults, but only when viewed through a very different lens.

While the examples above highlight how media “roles” for young adults haven’t changed much over the last 25 years, I do believe that the context with which we view them has changed quite dramatically.

Unlike The Breakfast Club, which was based on the story of “five total strangers, with nothing in common,” we now live in a world where connections take on a whole new meaning. Social media and online networks allow many of us to identify and connect with others who have something in common and reinforce those distinct bonds. I realize that this is somewhat of a sweeping generality, but in comparison to 1985, most young adults are no longer limited to a single community like the one portrayed in the movie. In many ways we’ve embraced the stereotypes with the help of social media and they have empowered today’s young adults to develop an identity of their own through Facebook profiles, Twitter handles and YouTube videos. This modern day composite identity is one that can include, “a brain, a beauty, a jock, a rebel and a recluse” and then some.

This post merely scratches the surface with thoughts and references from my own personal experiences about generational stereotypes. By writing this piece, I’m not trying to make any judgments as to whether or not stereotypes such as those featuring young adult characters have a positive or negative role. What I do know is that these roles make for good television, music videos and movies, and will live on longer than anyone who ever “played” them on film.

Why do you think stereotypes like the ones highlighted in The Breakfast Club for example have lasted so long? Will technology continue to change the way we identify ourselves and others?