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Helping Adolescents Think Beyond the Headlines
The importance of getting the full picture and not just the sound bites.
Posted September 7, 2020
It seems with today’s political atmosphere being as charged as it’s ever been in our lifetime, it’s important adolescents learn how to look at situations with a critical eye. With all of the chaos going on in the country, from the continuing COVID-19 pandemic to the upcoming election, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the information constantly bombarding us.
Today, more and more, we seem to be becoming a “headline only” society. Often we make up our minds about how we feel based on only the headline of the story, or at best, partial information. This is especially true in television news programs, where often complex issues are broken down into short sound bites that may be misleading or don’t tell the whole story.
It is important that adolescents learn to use their minds in a logical fashion to help them form their views of the world. If they are fed only a part of the story and do not explore further, they are going to seriously diminish their ability to make their best choices. By being satisfied with making choices before considering all of the information available can seriously diminish their chances of success in the world.
It is an unfortunate fact that there are many unscrupulous people and organizations that are more than happy to purposely mislead the public to get what they want. On most important issues that face our country, there are numerous opposing views. Often, this can lead to name-calling and other ways to vilify people who hold different views rather than have an intelligent discussion about it. When this happens, viewers often side with one person or the other, and prioritize the person they most identify with over what might be the best idea in the situation.
This type of thinking, where the person’s personality becomes more important than their ideas, can be very damaging to adolescents who are forming their own views. If they are shown that all that’s necessary to make an important decision is to attack your opponent rather than actually hear their point of view, it creates an unsafe space for people to feel they can speak up and be heard without being verbally attacked.
It is important that adolescents don’t get the message that they have to align themselves with a specific philosophy or else they are being disloyal. If that is the message they receive, it can stifle their ability to look at all sides of an issue, which can certainly harm them as they go through life.
For example: If a child gets the message that when he or she disagrees with someone, it’s not just the issue they’re discussing that’s in disagreement, it’s that the person him or herself is someone diminished as a human being because they hold a different point of view. In this way, the adolescent can have difficulty separating a difference of opinion about a specific issue from a negative impression of the person as a whole.
There are many reasons that politicians and others have for trying to label people and vilify them for holding different viewpoints. If adolescents can get the message that even if they disagree with someone, perhaps there is still something of value from the person’s viewpoint, it can broaden their awareness and help give them a wider perspective on the issues they are discussing. It can also help adolescents develop empathy for others, which can enable them to still respect someone even if they don’t agree with their views.
It can be quite limiting to make decisions based purely on the “headline” and not understanding the nuance of the situation. Being able to look at circumstances in their totality, considering both the positive and negative aspects of the situation before making a choice, helps to create a more well-rounded adolescent.
It’s important for parents and caregivers to give adolescents the space they need to gain as much knowledge as possible about the choices they are expected to make. The more informed adolescents are about their choices, the more likely they will be to make decisions that benefit their lives, both now and in the future.
