I wanna be popular!!

Gossip Girl was a show about privileged highschool students living on the Upper East side of Manhattan. The show was very drama filled and attracted teens just like me. The show is told from the perspective of an online blogger called "gossip girl". This blogger shows the audience the ins and outs of New York city as well as the relationships of all the characters.

Through out the series we can clearly see that the message being conveyed here is that to be successful and happy in life you must have lot's of money, a good solid relationship, and material goods. A key example of this is one of the characters named Blair Waldorf. In the final episode of Gossip Girl, Blair get's married to another character named Chuck, she's very rich, and with that comes material goods, such as clothes. Her happiness is based off all of those things, and she is never really happy during the show if she doesn't have money or a good relationship.  

A characteristic that is presented to the audience about teen culture is that teens are obsessed with being popular. Gossip Girl conveys the message that being popular and having a high social status is the key to success and happiness. If you don't throw extravagant parties and have tons of friends you aren't a successful and happy teenager.

I believe that the feedback loop came from teens and ends with teens. Most teens I know want to be popular and successful, but teens wanted to be popular and throw huge parties before Gossip Girl started. Now that Gossip Girl has ended people are still throwing parties and trying to be popular. This is why so many teens were attracted to this show because Gossip Girl conveys to us what our life should be like and how to be successful. Now I don't believe one bit that most people live like Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen. So this image of teens is very distorted. Though most teens want to be popular and successful whether they are living on the Upper East side of Manhattan. 

Gossip Girl first aired in 2007 so around 8 years ago. The characters within the show had so many devices ranging from the flip phone all the way to the iPhone in the last episode. Over time there was such a big change in technology. I cant predict the future but I believe that in 15 years media will be everywhere. It will be with people at all times no matter where you go. The devices will change, but the messages the media is trying to convey will still be the same.