Inspiration and motivation trump hedonism in new MTV series

By Julie Skinner

I’m not entirely sure when it happened exactly, but somewhere along the way kids started growing up way too fast. Is it just me or are children now born wearing skinny jeans? Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate style just as much as the next girl, but I certainly didn’t look like a rock star when I was a preteen — in fact, I was grossly awkward and had an unfortunate case of fluffy Degrassi hair.

At 13 I received my very first beauty appliance, a hand-me-down hair straightener that previously belonged to my sister. The machine was bulky and it was difficult to hold with one hand. The idea was that you fill it with precisely the correct amount of water, plug it in and let the hot plates heat for ten minutes. I was always a little scared to use the straightening beast because it would hiss, crackle, and snap at me as steam billowed out menacingly from the metal plates.

I’m not sure what hair guru came up with the idea that hot, moist air would straighten my curly hair, but I certainly fell for it. Despite my painstaking efforts, the result usually resembled a wet poodle. Looking back, as lame and unfortunate as that experience may have been, it was all a part of my awkward transformation period from gangly, uncoordinated kid to not-so-self-conscious teenager.

Ever since MTV Canada’s launch in 2006, young Canucks have had the opportunity to delve into a non-intellectual microcosm of pop culture. This raised-on-TV generation simply has to sit back, relax, and let the programming do the thinking for them. MTV is famous for pimping narcissism, whether it's in the form of celebrities showing off their palatial estates, spoiled teenagers demanding that their parents spare no expense for their 16th birthday party, or through showcasing the vapid lives of would-be fashionistas who live a life of designer duds and attend exclusive parties despite the fact that they don’t have real jobs.

MTV is a purely image based network that, as of late, has been all about drama and glamour. The station’s programming illustrates that anyone can be a star — all you have to do is shamelessly put yourself out there. The newest addition to MTV’s reality family now includes four guys from B.C. whose motivating journey offers a fresh change from the station’s usual themes of excess and vanity.

With a newfound socially-conscious mindset, MTV now believes that you can’t “download” life experience. While tagging is easy to do on Facebook, MTV says that it isn’t so effortless when it comes to things like happiness and accomplishment — those experiences you actually have to live for yourself.

With this in mind, brothers Duncan and Jonnie Penn have teamed up with their friends Ben Nemtin and Dave Lingwood to formulate a list of roughly 100 things that they want to do before they die. Along their journey, the guys have decided that for every task they complete on their list (like No. 1– Learn how to fly and No. 55 — Kiss Rachel McAdams) they will help a stranger work towards one of their life goals as well.

MTV has not totally converted to this self-serving mentality, however, as The Buried Life will juxtapose tasks like sneaking into a party at the Playboy mansion with selfless deeds such as giving computers to underprivileged kids — all in a tidy 30 minute package. MTV says it hopes this series will inspire others to live life to the fullest as well, taking advantage of the limitless possibilities that a new decade brings.

I suppose it’s too much to expect that MTV will completely overhaul its programming and replace it with less mind-numbing forms of entertainment. Like it or not, 13-year-olds today don’t live in the same world that I once did.

In fact, it seems as though the generation gap is widening to the point where teenagers don’t appear to be all that different from those in their mid-twenties. This frightens me. It’s shocking for me to watch a kid throw a tantrum because their parents gave them the wrong colour Lexus. When I was fifteen I was covered in scrapes and bruises from playing sports and roughhousing outside.

But then again, when I was a kid I didn’t look like a rock star.

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