Talking Points 6 Fast Forward

Talking Points 6
Fast Forward
By: Lauren Greenfield

The article “Fast Forward” is about a woman’s, Lauren Greenfield, trip down memory lane into her youth as a young teen growing up in Los Angeles. In order to connect to her past, she spent sometime in areas that she was most familiar with. Through her experience, Greenfield reflects on what she refers to as her common theme, which helped to keep her focused throughout, which was the sense of an early loss of innocence. Greenfield recalls a teenager once saying, “You grow up really fast when you grow up in L.A. It seems like everyone is in a rush to be an adult. It’s not cool being a kid.” I feel that this statement is very telling of how most teens feel these days. I remember in my teenage years feeling the exact same way, having concerns that were way beyond my years, and worst of all it was all self-induced. I question why we as teenagers do this to ourselves, why must we rush through our childhood so fast to only live to regret how quickly it went by. Greenfield also mentions a boy asking her what she was doing, and when she explained, he very simply stated, “If you’re doing a story about growing up in L.A., you have to show money. That’s what it’s all about.” I find this statement to be depressing, the idea of a seventh grader, thirteen years old, only having one concern and that being money. Greenfield later states that when she processed the film to her camera, she noticed that the boys were holding up hundred dollar bills. Greenfield also goes on to discuss the pressures that teens have in trying to assimilate and fit into society. She explains that kids from all sides of the tracks now idealize the image of gangsta rap. This closely relates to Tricia Rose’s piece, Rose refers to teenagers buying into this gangsta rap, however all these rappers are rapping about are commercialized labeled brands, hip-hop/rap has changed so much over the years. It is no longer used a way to vent and release about life, so much as it is used to talk about the newest hottest brand name out there. I thought that Greenfield did a wonderful job of explaining her standpoint, before she ends her argument, she briefly mentions a young boy Ennis Beley, who was, as she describes, her advisor throughout this entire experience until he was killed in a brutal gang murder just before his sixteenth birthday. Overall, I enjoyed this article; I feel that Greenfield made very valid points, that we as adults can mildly remember experiencing. Greenfield states, “The self-consciousness that underlies their aspirations inevitably costs them their innocence”, and I could not agree more.