#3 "Tell Me What You See, Even if It Hurts Me: 'Am I Pretty?' Video Posed to the Internet Raise Questions"

           Recent research shows that videos concerning the matter of looks of young adults have increased dramatically these past few years. Questions asking if one is pretty or not are fairly common and normal, but as technology advances, the new generation of teens who have grown up along with an easy access to social media are posing this question to the wrong audience. These questions used to be asked to family or friends, but nowadays, it is posted on the internet. There are more than 23,000 videos on YouTube and the numbers continue to increase every day. Young teenagers face the challenge of wanting to be accepted and think about their image, and therefore, these videos are posted. The reason this has been a current issue is that it is not like the usual family environment they're used to - people online can be hurtful and have a bad effect on these teenagers not only causing depression, but also a great confusion in their identity. The public reception and opinion of this matter is very controversial. Some believe that this is the result of "America's creeping narcissism crisis" in which "young culture is obsessed with the superficial". Others view these girls and boys as victims. They support the idea that these are the causes for the increase in depression, self harm, and eating disorders, which are very common in today's society. There are a few others who consider the videos humorous and tend to mock them. Despite the negative comments and reactions these teenagers receive, they continuously post these videos asking the question "Am I pretty?" not because they don't understand, but because they want to feel the acceptance and validation within a community.

           Douglas Quenqua begins this passage with an excerpt of an interview with Sammie, a 13-year-old from New Jersey. Sammie tells her thoughts and reasons behind why she posted a video with the question "Am I pretty?", and with that, Quenqua develops the topic by supporting it with certain details. He presents solid evidence from studies and research to show the statistics and increase of videos. Not only does he provide a basic background and discussion of the topic, he shares the various opinions of people about this subject. His article was written in a very casual form, consisting mainly of quotes with certain details. The author's overall tone was informative, but in some ways, a little bit of sympathy and disapproving could be found. The words and quotes he picked to support this article was able to reach the reader and bring out certain emotions such as agreement and sympathy. Overall, Quenqua wrote a very clean cut article with a great amount of personal opinions of others without straying away from the main point of it. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/fashion/am-i-pretty-videos-posed-to-the-internet-raise-questions.html?ref=fashion&_r=0