Technology advancements have become more complex as years pass. Social media platforms have become our leading form of communication, and an outlet for expression. While social media’s original intent was to have people connected to news, it has exceeded its expectation. With the increased use of smart phones, media has become more present, immediate, and reactive. Platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter gain hundreds of new users each day. A new Pew Research Center report claims Instagram as the most used platform for teens (Smith and Anderson, 2018).
On these platforms, mostly used by adolescents, celebrities are ranked by views, new content, and influence. Celebrities use these platforms in efforts to keep in touch with fans and gain industry presence. Celebrities such as Cardi B share their life style, opinions, and behavior through posted pictures and videos with captions. Cardi B is known for her “no filter attitude” and confrontational behavior, taking over headlines across media. Adolescents that idolize Cardi B ultimately face cognitive perspectives of false reality and absurd ideologies, that is furthermore enforced by operant conditioning.
Belcalis Almanzar, better known as Cardi B was born in 1992 to her Trinidadian mother and Dominican father. Her parents in her preteen years had split, leading her to bounce between Highbridge Bronx, a Latino majority community, and her grandmother’s apartment in Washington Heights (Akhtar, 2017). Cardi B prior to her rap fame worked as a stripper since the age of nineteen. Her stripping career started upon being fired from a cashier position at a supermarket. Cardi B has shared that she turned to stripping to escape poverty and move out of her abusive boyfriend’s apartment.
While working as a stripper, Cardi B gained followers on Instagram for her attractive charisma. Her initial followings were of three thousand strip club regulars and bartenders. On her Instagram account she spoke openly about her career as a stripper, discussing sex, men and money making. Her videos had gone viral, and after taking media by storm Cardi B was entered into reality television series Love & Hip Hop: New York, expressing her “no filter attitude”. Eventually Cardi B had quit the show, to focus on her music career (Davis, 2017). In 2016 she was signed to Atlantic Records, and released her debut single “Bodak Yellow”. Since then she has released multiple albums, all songs relating to unhealthy relationship motives, fame through stripping, and materialism.
At the time of adolescence individuals start to have more control over their decisions, emotions and actions, and start to disengage from parental control (Blakemore, 2006). At the same time there is an intense socialization process that occurs, where adolescents are aware of the perspectives others may have. The emergence of social self is marked by the heightened self-consciousness, where adolescents become overly preoccupied with other people’s concerns of their actions, thoughts and appearances (Elkind, 1967. Teens begin to feel that there is this imaginary audience. This concept is expressed by Piaget’s stages of cognitive growth, proposing that children develop internal representations of objects in early childhood and are restricted to concrete thinking until age 11.
At the age of 11 the stage formal operational thought begins, enabling the differentiation between perception and their own mental construction (Inhelder and Piaget, 1958). Piaget proposes that this new form of thinking allows children in early adolescence to conceptualize other’s thoughts and construct their own perspectives, though this of course is weak at first and is solidified once reaching emerging adulthood.
With this idea of an imaginary audience, and non-solidified perspective of risk taking and judgment adolescents fall into social media’s trap. Cardi B is one of the most commonly idolized celebrities sharing her journey to fame through stripping, advocating inappropriate life styles and provocative behavior. Teens today model similar interests and behavior as Cardi B to fit in and alleviate the feeling of attention being focused on them. While teens continue to model, what seems to be absurd to adults, this behavior they are unaware of potential risks they place on their future self. They begin constructing false ideas of leaving school to become strippers and work their way to becoming famous or encountering large sums of money.
This becomes problematic to behavioral development in teens once feedback is provided. Social media is in nature reactive, allowing individuals to comment their thoughts towards presented behavior, acting as a reinforcement. Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments to attain desirable behavior (Skinner, 1938). Though, we find that community feedback on social media is more likely to perpetuate undesired behavior (Cheng, **). Cardi B’s posts on Instagram are composed of her in revealing dresses, promoting risky clothing brands, videos of her dancing provocatively, and recently videos of her slandering rapper Nicki Minaj. Adolescents view comments in reaction to these posts, containing positivity, encouragement and self-esteem boosting connotations, that reinforce this negative behavior.
Adolescents because of this reinforcement are likely to repeat similar behavior on their social media pages and in peer communities. Teens purchase clothing from promoted brands and upload pictures of them in risky attire. Peers respond to one another in positive ways, admiring one another for being similar to Cardi B. Concerns are not only limited to their social hierarchy, but potential risks. Privacy settings are optional on social media platforms; this could become dangerous in instances of sexual harassment. In regard to Cardi B’s video of slandering, adolescents may utilize Instagram in similar efforts to bully others, and gain encouraging feedback in response to public humiliation.
Despite Cardi B acknowledging her young fan community, she has still not made changes within her broadcasted messages to teens. Her continued miss-use of social media platforms contribute the the negative influences and factors on adolescents and their development. Piaget’s stages of cognitive development support the claim of adolescents falling victim to the social media community. Adolescents rather fit in and conform to trends to reduce the possibility of standing out, in fear of the imaginary audience. Teens are only enforced when conforming to these views and actions through feedback of the media community. Feedback acts as a conditioned reinforcement making the occurrence of undesired behavior more likely.
