You Will Be Surprised To Know How Celebs Are Influencing Your Teenager
Written by Jennifer Bennett, Posted on , in Section Inspirational
Everywhere you look, you see celebrities doing ridiculous things. With detailed reports of Lindsay Lohan's amenities in rehab, to Miley Cyrus with piles of weed and cups full of cough syrup; to the celebrities of the Jersey Shore eloping left, right, and center. Are these celebrities and their vicarious lifestyles affecting the way that teens behave and perceive right and wrong?
The Media's Take on Drug Use
Whether or not they're actively telling teens to go out and drink copious amounts of cough syrup or smoke piles of marijuana; or be super promiscuous, everything vicarious that these teens are seeing on the internet, television, YouTube, or advertisements makes them compare their lives to those of celebrities. Often, teenagers look up to and idolize celebrities- making them their role models. And in the case of celebrities like Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan- Disney created innocent children stars with millions of fans; and warped these children's growing experience creating adolescent adults with plenty of money to escape punishment and plenty of leniency from the Courts; which makes crime look petty when it's really not. Some prevalent examples of this, from a teen celebrity standpoint, include:
- Lindsay Lohan's criminal history and multiple drug charges are thoroughly detailed on the internet, as well as her punishments. She is quickly bailed out of jail, avoids prison, and spends her time living her life of luxury as if nothing ever happened; ordered to live in rehab facilities that are better than the world's best vacation resorts for the less affluent.
- Lil Za; one of Justin Bieber's playmates had a felony heroin possession charge reduced to a misdemeanor; no questions asked. Bieber himself, charged with an underage DUI was only sentenced to anger management classes for yelling at the arresting officer; as well as being forced to pay a hefty $50,000 fine- no problem for the child star.
However, in the Real World...
These situations would never happen to the average teen. The average teen doesn't have $50,000 to just throw away every time there's a problem with the law. And what does that enforce anyway? That money and affluence get you whatever you want; regardless of the consequences.
In fact, a 19 year-old resident of Texas is facing 20 years in prison for making some simple marijuana brownies. Because of the extra weight of the flour, cocoa, egg and butter; this poor teenager is facing what must seem like life in prison because of some brownies. What's even worse, is that the amount of marijuana used would have been a misdemeanor if it hadn't been in brownies. That's fair, right? The real kicker of this situation was that besides this ONE charge, his record was completely clean.
What Do We Do?
