Aiding AIDS Awareness

Is everyone benefitting equally from the Information Age? Probably not. A common belief exists that younger people absorb and consume more media than their older peers and while the idea may be a stretch, maybe this difference is contributing to the bipartisan issues that we see as "liberal vs conservative and Generation X vs Generation Y. Maybe those spoiled and lazy millenials are just watching more TV. The consumption of media makes up such a large chunk of young people's lives now, with about 6 to 9 hours of each day devoted to some sort of mass media (Roberts, 2000). With such a disparity in media use, of course a divide will exist in the two groups' ideals. But maybe this disparity is causing more than just differing ideals. When I saw how ignorance about AIDS still existed among older people, I thought that maybe the sexual health campaigns should shift their focus to encompass a larger audience.

For example, in this video, the series "What Would You Do," sets up a scenario where an actor plays a teen that is HIV-positive and another actor publicly expresses disgust by complaining that he doesn't want to catch HIV from him and moves away. Most people ignore the commotion and simply observe the situation. However, in one instance, a man sitting next to the actor pretending to be disgusted agrees that there is some logic in moving away because if the HIV actor sneezed in his coffee he could catch it. On another occasion shown, some older men sitting down come to the support of the HIV actor, saying that unless you made out with him, then you should not be worried about it. While I was happy that they came to the support of the HIV actor, what they said actually was not true either because HIV transfer through salivia exchange is impossible. 

As seen in Collins's study, media can be an effective way to spread knowledge about sexual health, but there needs to be more or more salient messages extending outside of trendy shows or trendy media programs on the internet. I think this is more important than ever right now because our media is very agenda-based. Fads like in fashion exist for the media, and right now it is not on AIDS. Ten years ago it was AIDS and now it is cancer. If somehow I were to be infected with HIV, I know for sure that there are people in my life that would be scared and wary of catching it from me. 

Collins, R.L.,Elliott,M. N.,Berry, S.H.,Kanouse, D.E.,&Hunter, S.B. (2003).
Entertainment television as a healthy sex educator: The impact of condom-efficacy
information in an episode of Friends. Pediatrics, 112(5), 1115-1121. doi:
10.1542/peds.112.5.1115

Roberts DF. Media and youth: access, exposure, and privatization. J

Adolesc Health 2000;27(2 Suppl.):8–14.