Week 6 Popular Media Review

The Teenage Brain in Shameless

The Showtime show Shameless revolves around a lower-class, dysfunctional family's antics as they struggle to find success in ghetto America. Frank, the deadbeat father, has many children of all ages, and nearly every one of them exemplifies different levels of adolescent brain development. Many of the kid's choices and reasoning illustrate the kind of logic (or lack thereof) that is mentioned in The Teenage Brain, and as I read the book and watched the show, it was very easy to make connections between them. For example at one point in the show, a 16 year old (Debby) decides without a doubt that she is ready to have a baby and fall in love. Any adult would look down on this decision and know wholeheartedly that she is wrong, but of course Debby fights back and assures that she is grown up enough to make her own decisions. This point in the show illustrates just how hard it is to reason with a teenager who thinks they know everything, and I wonder that had the adults dealing with Debby had read The Teenage Brain, maybe they could have come up with a more calculated approach. This is why I feel that even basic understanding of the inner-working of a developing adolescent brain are so important. The more educated you are about who you're dealing with, the more educated your plan of action is going to be. 

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