Fast Forward is about the Photographs that Lauren Greenfield took of L.A kids. She wanted to know these kid’s stories and what was going on in their life. She wanted to know their goals and dreams, and how where they are living influences them.
In Los Angeles, media is a huge impact on most teenagers and kids. The whole ideal of living in Hollywood and making it big is was might kids/teens wish for. In L.A, kids/teens want to show off how much money they have. They want to have a lot of materialistic things. L.A. is very diverse city, and many of the kids and teens want to make it big, and be well known in different ways. Some of the ways they want to become famous is kind of disturbing too.
In Lauren Greenfield’s article she said,” a striking commonality throughout was the importance of image and celebrity. As innocuously as throwing the most extravagant party or creating an individual style, as gravely as killing a member of another gang, L.A.'s kids are engaged in the age-old Hollywood pursuit of making a name for themselves. The quest for notoriety has become a rite of passage. At a time of life when young people struggle to form their identities, that struggle is raised to new heights in the context of Los Angeles and Hollywood. Whether it is the desire to be an adult when one is a child, to be a gangster when one is privileged, to be famous when one is unknown, or to look like a model when one does not, young people are preoccupied with becoming other than they are. Los Angeles, in her traditional role as the city of dreams has bequeathed the quest for the dream to her children. The self-consciousness that underlies their aspirations inevitably costs them their innocence.”
What she is saying in this quote is that kids/teens are trying to grow up too fast.
I think Greenfield would agree with Raby’s five discourses. They both discuss how the media influences kids/teens and how it’s making them grow up too fast, and not enjoy being a kid.
I think McMillian and Morrison would respond to Lauren Greenfields book in a positive way. Greenfield is seeing the real teens, and they are letting her know how the media influences them.
In Greenfield’s book, it’s a lot of young people. The oldest in the book is 20 years old, and the youngest is 3 years old. The people that are absent in her book are 21 and over. I think the reason for that is so she can see how young we are influenced by our media, and how it truly effects us.
3 comments:
I agree with the idea that children, teens, and even adults want to be what they are not, or have what they do not have. I think that it was nice to see the different ages she photographed so we could see this actually fall into place, and how media does play a big role in how we are.
Yea, she left out every over 21 because she's mostly concerned with youth. I also personally feel that maybe even going up to 25 would have worked well. Aren't we always growing and learning, even into our 20's and beyond?
Reading and viewing Greenfield's project has gotten me very excited about the project we will be doing in this class. I believe that life in the L.A. that Greenfield introduced us to can be perceived as "real" and because of this, many emulate it. I felt that everything was based on image, and therefore unreal.
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