Sexual Relationships 
Sexual Health 
We've been hearing it for years, and more recently, we've heard it from President Donald Trump: The Media is full of crap.
Fine Mr. Trump, you got that one right. Or at least it seems.
How many times do you see repeated headlines on your local(or the national news), and you eventually start soaking in, and believing everything which was said? I hope this doesn't happen to this community, but I'm sure it has before.
So, for this grand Take, I'm going to pull statistics from the most reliable sources I can find, as an effort to combat three major media headlines. Keep in mind, this is coming from the perspective of a resident of the United States of America. I'm not sure how other countries present their news, or what the big topic is in their country. While I would love to do many more media misconceptions, I decided to do three which seems to persist in the media the most in this day of age.
Let me present the caveat here: I am, by no means, saying statistics are 100 percent factual, or even accurate. With any statistic, they are misleading, or in some cases, purposely biased. I've also noticed statistics may tell the truth, but not the whole truth. My goal with this MyTake is to show the contrast with statistics, and the media. So, let's begin.
Media Headlines 1: Teen Pregnancy is out of control!
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), teen pregnancy rates are at an all time low, as of 2016.
Image above, courtesy of the CDC, shows the declining trend over the past three decades.
Since 2006, the rate of teens becoming pregnant has dropped more than 40 percent. Racial demographic groups, such as African-Americans, and Hispanics, have seen their rates drop significantly more than Caucasians. Most studies have found that teen pregnancy, believe it or not-peaked in the 1950's! Of course, the caveat is, many teenagers married each other, so they were having babies in wedlock, and there weren't many single parents.
So, why are statistics showing a sharp decrease in teen pregnancy? If you're thinking birth control(or condoms), you're wrong, as studies also show that birth control, and/or condom usage has remained constant for decades. Instead, the reason is quite simple, and blunt: Teenagers are having less sex than they ever have. As a matter of fact, there are more teenage virgins than there ever have been. The average age for a teen to lose his/her virginity is about 18, which is two full years later than the 1970's! Yikes! Now, an astonishing 41 percent of people aged 13-19 are virgins! This number has doubled since the 1970's. Specifically high school students, a solid majority of them are virgins, with 54 percent of high school students(grades 9-12) claiming they are virgins. This is the first time in history that a majority of high schoolers are virgins. Even teens in college are having less sex than they ever have.
On this topic, it should still be noted that the teen pregnancy rate in the United States of America is higher than any other developed country in the world, which includes Canada, European countries, Asian countries, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, and Greenland.
My thought: Even if teen pregnancy was "out of control", who cares? It's their personal life, and I don't have to be a part of it if I don't want to. It's not like teen parents are automatically neglectful, or abusive. Sure, it's not a good idea to become pregnant as a teenager-Since you most likely can't afford to take care of a baby at that age, and you're still developing yourself. But it's not necessarily an immoral, or "bad" thing either.
Media Headline 2: We have an drug epidemic, which is getting out of hand!
According to the Centers of Disease Control, and Prevention, drug use has increased, and there is no doubt about it.
Roughly ten percent of Americans report using illegal drugs. This is a sharp increase, especially among Millennials. To be more specific, drug use is more common among Caucasians, and males compared to every other gender, and race combination.
So, you might be thinking: What is the catch? The media is supposed to be wrong, right?
Well...yes, and no.
There is a huge catch, a bigger catch than catching a legendary Pokemon: The CDC includes marijuana in their "drug use" studies. Yes, you heard me: Good ol' Mary Jane, Weed, Grass, whatever you call it. By legal definition, weed is a drug. However, with this logic, markers, and any other "sniffing" substance can be a "drug" as well. I think we can all agree THC, or marijuana, or whatever you want to call it-Is hardly a drug-Or at least a drug no worth worrying about.
Excluding Marijuana, we have actually seen a slight decrease in drug use-Particularly among young people. This decrease is largely due to Crack, Cocaine, Crack-Cocaine, Methamphetamine, and LSD. There has been a slight increase with heroin, but only about two percent of people nationwide even use heroin, so I still think the headlines for heroin overdoses are a bit out of proportion.
For what it's worth, we can consider alcohol, and tobacco drugs as well. Tobacco use is at an all time low, with only 15 percent of people 18 years, or older using tobacco. And despite the fact you might hear about the "frat guy who binge drinks too much", young people(teens, and adults) are drinking less than they ever have, less frequently than they ever have, and are now less likely to binge drink than older adults. What, you don't say? Only 18 percent of people under 21 years old binge drink in a given year, which is an absurdly huge decline over the years. As a matter of fact, middle-aged men are the most likely to die of alcohol poisoning.
Chart above is courtesy of Responsibility.Org, which has a latest statistic on teen drinking as of 2015.
My Thought: I could write an essay on why I think all drugs should be decriminalized, but I'll save that for later. I don't care what people do to their own bodies. If people want to harm themselves, I say let them! It's their body, their choice, as long as they're legal adults who have graduated from high school.
Media Headline 3: Violence is a huge problem!
This is the big one! The mother of all headlines!
How many times have we seen a mass shooting make news headlines? Or about how violent "these days" are, and how we are now afraid to leave our kids home alone due to intruders? Well, this is the most controversial topic in this take for a reason: It's all politicized.
Putting politics aside, let's dive into this. We're not going to debate gun control measures, or expose any other forms of violence to push an agenda.
"Violence" is such a vague term, but one thing we can all agree on is that homicide is a form of violence-Quite possibly the most serious form of violence there is. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI), homicide rates are at a 51 year old low, as of 2014(The most recent statistics on this).
WHAAAAAAAAAAT? There is no way this is possible, right? Well, it's true. Now, there doesn't seem to be much evidence that mass shootings-Specifically, and only mass shootings-Have decreased. However, homicidal rates in general have decreased. I've also read that violent crimes have decreased in general. This doesn't mean the United States if safe by any means-As we are one of the most violent countries in the world, but it does paint a more optimistic light.
My Thought: A teen parent is a teen parent, let them be. A "partier" is a partier, let them be. But violence is an issue, and I'm thrilled to see something which puts us all in danger, on the decrease. Why won't our media report these statistics?
So, what are some headlines you feel are blown out of proportion? Let me know in the comments.
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