The much publicised Project X party in Kileleshwa, Kenya’s latest ‘controversial’ house party clearly shows the pattern of learned behaviour that our generation is today drawing from to meet the perceived demands of contemporary society.
"This is how the devil is using the young generation to get people into cults they have no idea about. Let's say no to this Project X thing and on 12th March if you got nothing to do just go look for a church with a kesha or just sleep" advises Delphine Ndirangu, a Nakuru campus student.
“What is wrong with this generation?” posed Daniel Irungu, a concerned student.
"Do we really care about the future of our youth. We approve events like Project X," @asamoh.
No event has ever elicited such public uproar to the extent of dominating news headlines across the nation.
The question is; how do media portrayal of contemporary generation distort self-perception?
A way to analyse this latest development is by understanding that our perception of self is distorted through verbal and visual images we see in the media such as on television, in the movies, and in popular magazines.
According to Wikipedia, The film, Project X , which I believe the houseparty could have been adapted from, follows three friends, Thomas (Thomas Mann), Costa (Oliver Cooper) and J.B. (Jonathan Daniel Brown).
The trio plan to gain popularity by throwing a party for their friend Thomas, during his birthday, which quickly escalates out of their control when more and more people begin to arrive.
The party gets wild with heavy indulgence in sex orgies and substance abuse dominating the occasion to a point there goblin that is crashed and breaks with a large amount of ecstasy tablets, which are quickly consumed by the partygoers.
In fact, following the release of this film on March 2, 2012, incidents of large scale parties are referenced or blamed the film as an inspiration.
In fact, incidents of teenagers engaging in alcohol and sex is becoming a worrying trend in Kenya.
It is during such times that the young are deceived into consuming drugs-laced substances.
The disturbing thing is that most victims are girls or college students.
Social learning theory suggests that people strive to copy the characteristics and behaviours of the characters portrayed as ‘ideal example’ by some form of media.
Unfortunately, it is the persistent media messages of violence, promiscuity, use of profanity and glorification of sex orgies have all been linked to distort perception of self among viewers.