Screenagers is a rhetorical masterpiece recognized by most SkyView students that warns us of the horrors of cellular devices. As highschool students in the modern era, our lives are plagued by screens. To amend this situation, a cinematic masterpiece was brought into the our lives. Now I’m not here to bash a resource used to warn us of the many issues associated with screens (not today at least). I’m simply here to analyze the rhetorical affect of this propaganda on SkyView Academy’s student population.

I think it’s easy to see that the film did not have much of an effect on SkyView students. In fact, almost immediately after being shown the film, students made jokes about the subject constantly. In fact, even being shown this video years ago, I still make Screenager jokes to this day. I think a huge problem with the film was the unrealistic social interactions. In a world full of reality television, a modern teenager is quick to spot a charlatan teen. The daughter in this film is portrayed as whiny and naive. She comes across as a very young middle schooler, which automatically evokes disgust in most people. High schoolers in particular, are extremely susceptible to judging middle schoolers, and as soon as you try to compare them to a middle schooler, they tune out. The interactions between the mom and daughter are forced stereotypical situations. A prime example is when the mother asks why her daughter needs a better phone. The daughter provides a very shallow response with something along the lines of “to be cool like my friends.” While for few people that might be the underlying cause of them wanting a phone, I don’t think anyone would outright say that. Regardless, I think Screenagers is a prime example of ineffective propaganda. It was meant to convince us that phones are bad, but in the end became a meme to all SVA students.