In the modern world, the search for future reference points as a way of encoding and experiencing time, a fundamental factor that largely determines the development of the individual, social and national-state systems, is being actualized. This is especially true for the reference points of socio-demographic groups that determine the future, such as adolescents. In postmodernist, often past-oriented social systems, the social status of adolescence is usually associated with a crisis of hormonal maturation, entering the imperfect, unjust world of adults, which gives instability to the emerging personality. At the same time, products of visual culture, especially such as TV series, can have a significant impact on the formation/degradation of an adolescent’s personality. The aim of this study is to analyze the image of a teenager in popular Russian TV series in the context of the guidelines for the future of an emerging personality. The method of research is content analysis. The paper shows that less than half of the characters of TV series are brought up in complete families, and only every fifth-sixth screen teenager develops trusting relationships with parents. This manifests and intensifies the crisis of family relations. School is most often broadcast in TV series, but is not the prevailing social environment of adolescents’ activities. This reflects the degree of devaluation of the importance of learning activities as the foundation of personality formation. The article reveals that every third screen teenager has health problems. The combination of a significant proportion of both positive and negative qualities in screen teenagers reflects the instability of the core of personality – the system of moral and ethical norms. The basic status positions of a teenager (I am a family member; I am a diligent student) are replaced by simulacra of consumer identities associated with a variety of clothing styles. In our opinion, it is necessary to correct the image of the screen teenager as soon as possible on the basis of future reference points determined by the traditional system of values, in which parents, family, teacher, school are closer than the marketer, and form the Personality as a subject of social development, bring up a happy, harmonious person, healthy in body, kind in soul and strong in spirit
Keywords
adolescents, identity formation, mass culture, TV series, visual image, teenage image