I’ve always wondered; what IS “normalcy”? The idea has always been vague and blurred to me. Am I normal? Are you normal? Recently, it has been a topic of discussion with  myself and others. We recognize a trend toward conformity in our generation, if you will. This is caused by how media portrays “normal” people. There are advertisements or subliminal messages for how “regular” people are supposed to act or dress. For example, ads about makeup or clothes show what a “perfect” or “normal” girl should look like: rail-thin, tall, and with a perfect complexion. Commercials targeting guys are worse. Those display the overly masculine male stereotype; strong, brave, athletic, stoic, etc. We need to think about how these commercials affect kids. How do they feel after seeing all this conformity and “normalcy”? THAT is what we should be doing.

Just imagine, you’re a little kid and you’re so full of life. You want to change the world. You’re just sitting around when you see those damned commercials. You think nothing of them, since they’re just things on TV. Then you grow older. Your individuality decreases more and more each day. Kids at school berate you for being so weird and outgoing. You like to think that they’re wrong and that it’s good to be weird. You watch TV again because it basically taught you everything. Then you see those sitcoms and commercials. Those kids are thin, attractive, cool, perfect. That’s the problem with commercials and advertisements. They put on a false image of what being perfect or normal is.

As people can tell, a lot of teenagers (even young children) suffer from criticism and even verbal abuse from their peers. Many like to believe that it could be the child’s fault, but perhaps the situation should be looked at from a different angle. The kid is merely being outgoing and expressing himself or herself, perhaps not even realizing that what they do is sort of insubordinate. The reason teenagers are so rebellious and different than how they were at a younger age can be explained by being touched by the cold hands of conformity. In fact, I like to think that the way someone acts in their teenage years is their natural response to all this “normalcy” being thrown at them. However, if you look at it from the point of view of some big company commissioning these commercials, kids could just be being dramatic. I’ve even considered that possibility from personal experiences and thoughts of myself. However, if something is exaggerated, it’s still there. Despite not seeming like a BIG problem, it could still be a problem.

In conclusion, I believe that these commercials displaying people being “normal” do more harm to kids than good to the companies commissioning them. Kids are naturally outgoing, yet shy and insecure. Being forced to conform to what society and their peers see as “perfect” and “normal” can only end in one way; in disaster. Look at all these suicide reports and tell me that the people they’re around don’t cause this.