For many of us, young adulthood can be a very confusing time. We reach an age in which were considered too old to act too childishly, yet were not old enough to be taken as seriously as an adult would be. Its at this point many young adults struggle to find their place between the two. Establishing ones identity during this period is not easy. Young adults are striving daily to formulate their identity&Young adults, perhaps more impressionable than they would like to admit, use the media as a major source of identity formation. The media also represents a common ground that young people share. From the media they acquire a set of guidelines to follow, both moral and stylistic (Ornstein). As Ornstein claims, many young adults establish guidelines for themselves based on what they absorb from media. It can be argued that there are many more sources in which young adults learn from. Deciding what they like and dislike from the morals they have been raised with is how many young adults establish themselves. Not working from the ground up, instead, they make alterations to their already established foundati
on. However, when it comes to stylistic preferences and values, this is not the case.
There are millions of media images bombarding us these days. In fact, the definition of media has expanded so much in the last decade that the term media seems to be an umbrella term. With all these images, it is practically impossible not to be influenced. As I said earlier, young adults are especially susceptible to the influence of media. Because they are in such a transitional period in their lives, young adults soak up information from anywhere they can get it. Using this information, they try on different personas, seeking out what works for them. Aesthetically, this holds a number of possibilities almost as large as the number of media influences available to young adults today. With luck, young adults will model themselves after a worthy role model with an admirable image, leading the young adult to develop into a similarly admirable person. As we all know, however, many times this is not the case. There are many media images that are available to young adults which glamorize otherwise negative physical traits.