So I've been home sick for the last two days. Which translates into way too much t.v., an awful lot of water and some really bad commercials. I've seen some so many anti-drug, alcohol, and teen pregnancy ads, it's absolutely crazy! And they got me thinking.. what's the point? Because here's the thing. I don't drink, I don't smoke, I've no intention of getting pregnant. And all of that has nothing to do with any of those ads. Because they tell me what, exactly? That smoking isn't good for you? That you'll behave differently? But I already knew that! What else? Surprise! Having a baby at sixteen will mess up your life. Well, I think I speak for most teenagers when I say, well, that much has always been clear to us.
And what could they say? Well, I'm not quite sure. They could say, how to avoid becoming pregnant and what to do if you end up in that particular situation. They could, instead of being all cutesy about it, show us what drugs will do to your body when your on them, not what they'll do to your actions. And maybe they could tell you how to be safe, no matter what you doing. I'm not really sure what they say. But what I do know is that the anti-risky behavior X ads may not be doing their jobs.
To be perfectly honest, I think that you can't stop all teens from doing risky things. Physically, it is wired into our brains to have a bad sense of risks and consequences. Yes, we can try to prevent things. But I think it's just as important to help people deal with the consequences of their actions. An ad warning against getting pregnant at age fifteen isn't going to help her figure what to do if she is already pregnant. Prevention is fine, but it has to be tampered with some kind of coping mechanism.
