Here’s what TV got wrong: what going back to school is really like
News flash! You are not the main character.
When I was in elementary school, I could not wait until high school and university. However, when I finally arrived, I realized that the beliefs I held for my entire childhood were all a lie. I can speak for most people born in the early 2000s when I say that these lies began in 2006, with the infamous Disney Channel Original Movie, High School Musical. It’s safe to say that in all my years of higher education, I have never once entered the cafeteria and found everyone in a spontaneous—yet perfectly well choreographed—flash mob. In fact, I have never once witnessed a food fight at all, and almost every movie and TV show about adolescent education has at least one food fight scene. This is where the lies began, but they surely did not end here.
The lies continued in 2007 with the live-action film Bratz, which further instilled the idea of cliques. The movie heavily emphasizes the need to conform to common high school archetypes through the four characters who must overcome them to remain friends. We all know the cliques. There are the jocks and cheerleaders, the brainiacs and punks, the skaters and theatre majors, and so on. This ideology is spread across many films and TV shows, but in all my years here at UTM, I cannot say I have ever been able to spot the cliques—nor do I believe any of us have ever needed to choose one. This makes me question their existence altogether. Was the idea of cliques just another lie we were all made to believe? I’d say so. Overall, the most unrealistic depiction of these movies and TV shows is that the drama always seems to be an outside force impeding their lives, but the conflict is hardly ever based on school-related issues. Is it just me, or does the media never show students studying for a test or pulling all-nighters to finish an assignment?
One of my favourite shows is The Vampire Diaries. In this supernatural drama, they battle werewolves, vampires, witches, and more. Yet, they never battle the biology lab or the book report. This makes me wonder how they even graduate and make it into university when they are hardly at school?
This is not the only show that is like this. Another of my favourites is Gossip Girl. Whether the characters are at private institutions or Ivy League universities, going back to school is always the plot’s background. This leads us to believe we will have lots of time for drama with our own family, friends, love interests, and enemies. However, this never seems to be the case.
The media has always been misleading but that’s not to say I would change these shows—I wouldn’t. I just wish someone would’ve told me, “Hey, it is nothing like this in real life.”
