How to Script Teen Reality Series about Drugs with Social Media Antagonists … Action!
“The teenage brain is not just an adult brain with fewer miles on it, It’s a paradoxical time of development. These are people with very sharp brains, but they’re not quite sure what to do with them… That is why, even though teenagers are aware of how social media can impact their decisions, they are still at risk for negative influences.” Frances Jensen, professor of neurology .
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How can we fix this problem for greater effect and reality retention for anti-drug life success?
Social media sites are only growing in popularity especially with teenagers with subsequent exposure to substance abuse, alcohol or drugs. They are the most at risk if only because they are the most active on the internet who might spend hours a day scrolling through pictures or making their next video hoping it may go viral.
Currently there are school based prevention programs, active counselling centres and parents’ interventions to curb substance abuse. But what if society could do more by presenting a TV or video reality series featuring the drug related antagonists and survival strategies as relevant scripts with an integrated long term overview?
Make it entertaining but also authentic and meaningful with real problems and solutions. Talk about family life lessons with moral anecdotes and sometimes jokes for good measures. Let’s hope that really good shows become viral for more discussion and awareness.
In the 1980’s serious effort was made to scare teenagers from using drugs at that time when crack cocaine was becoming an epidemic with some intense video advertising. “This is your egg. And this is frying pan. This is what happens to your egg after snorting frying pan. This is what your yolk comes through. It’s not over yet … this is what happens to your family … this is what happens to your future.”
