darrylb-sts-project

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Act your age or date your age ?

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Part 1:

After reading Neil Postman’s “ The day our children disappear “ and how he explained how television tends to divide childhood and adulthood I instantly thought about my generation's connection to social media. The current generation relies heavily on social media and the influencers who run it and these are the people they look up to and copy. Although their target audience isn't children, this is who often makes up 50% of their fanbase. As a result of looking up to these certain influencers they start to dress like them and buy the things they promote which can lead to many things such as looking and dressing older than what they actually are. This completely shortens the transition to adulthood and also gets them unwanted attention from those who believe they are around the same age but are not! I have developed the research question which is; How does social media influence put underage girls at risk for predators? Growing up in the current day of age I have noticed that these specific activities are becoming normalized when it comes to fashion and social status as many celebrities' children skip many of their teenage years and instantly become an adult.

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Da’merra, age: 16-17

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Part 2:

Much of my research was conducted on various social media platforms such as tiktok,instagram, twitter and youtube. These are prominent social media platforms which have the most impact on today's generation. Most of my research was on tiktok as it is easier to navigate in terms of looking through tabs of influencers who lie about their age and “ expose “ those who directly message them. I also did a lot of research on twitter as a source for many blogs and keyword locating as typed in many story headlines I remember reading as a child. Where I stumbled in my research was trying to find examples of predatory activity the girls may receive as many pages were private and weren't able to access information and also many people do not disclose their age in the bio of their platform.

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Mikaria Janae, age: 16

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Part 3:

After doing research I have discovered that there is a trend in kids who had a quick rise to fame which led to their quick transition to adulthood. First is Danille Bragoli, known professionally as bhad bhabie. She first became known from an appearance on Dr.Phil in september 2016 in which she uttered the phrase “ cash me outside, how bout dat?” which became a viral video meme and catchphrase. Danielle later goes on to become a rapper and has a heavy social media presence. Many would describe her as “ grown “ as she would appear 20-25 years old on her social media. Danielle would be pictured wearing crop tops , tattoos all over her body, long nails , and explicit vocabulary, all things things a normal 16 year old would not acquire. This specific look not only made her receive attention from blogs, but she also received attention from men who weren't aware of her age or so they claimed. In 2020, Danielle was 16 at the time, posted a picture of her modeling a crop top which caught the attention of a lot of people including celebrity boxer Adrian Broner who at the time was 30 years old. After seeing the picture Adrian directly messaged Danielle with the response to her picture “ text me crazy girl “. As a result she chose to expose him for the significant age gap instead of responding. He laters goes on to respond saying “ Nobody wants to date a kid, but I fault Instagram for not having peoples age on their profile. I thought she was grown the way she was out here moving” This perfectly answers the question I stated above in which was'' How does social media influence put underage girls at risk for predators? “. Due to her heavy influence with society it caused her to acquire certain attributes that doesnt fit a certain “16 year old” demographic which caused her to receive attention from some who are 15 years older than her. In no way shape or form am I defending Adrian Broner's actions, but I believe this interaction could have been avoided if Danielle made her age very clear such as putting in her bio for everyone to see to avoid mistakes like this from happening.

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Danielle Bregoli, age pictured: 16

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The next story is about Danielle Cohan, who is a huge tik tok star with over 18 million followers on the platform and has been a prominent figure on the app due to having very age assumptions because she has yet to confirm or deny. Looking at Danielle you would assume she is between the age of 18-24, but some have speculated that she is between the age of 12-16. In 2019 Danielle and her also famous tiktok boyfriend Mikey Tua broke up which caused a lot of drama in which most was centered around the questionable age gap which would be 19 and 15 years old. “Danielle and Mikey got together in 2018. If the former star was 12 then she must be 15 now. The tiktok star gained a lot of infamy over the years as fans alleged that she had been lying about her age”. This caused a lot of confusion on who to blame during all of the drama due to no confirmed age by Danielle or her mom. Danielle acquires the same attributes as “ Bhad Bhabie” which includes heavy make up, tattoos , and fashion taste which can make it hard for people to determine their age due to how they carry themselves.

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Daniele Cohan, age: 13-15 ( not confirmed )

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As I have witnessed the certain trends and evolution of the generation around me I already had the support and specific people I wanted to talk about. Although during this research it was a lot harder to tie in the predatory activities into things as it often does not fall into the same category when it comes to doing research on the topic or for my research question. My ultimate conclusion for my research is that due to the specific influencers we have on the internet, they aren't the best role models for the ages between 12-17 but there is no control on who watches them. This causes young girls to pick up on certain mannerisms and trends they put out, and the time we are living in “ if one person does it, many people follow “ which causes the younger generation of girls to grow up too fast which makes their age unidentifiable by just a single photo.

         Work Cited :

Kandpal, Disha. “Danielle Cohn Seemingly Confirms Real Age amidst Drama with Mikey Tua.” HITC, HITC, 17 Nov. 2021, https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/11/17/danielle-cohn-age/. 

“Kids Getting Older Younger: Are Children Growing up Too Fast?” BBC Worklife, BBC, https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220324-kgoy-kids-getting-older-younger. 

Marie, Erika. “Bhad Bhabie's Father Believes She's Being ‘Groomed’ to Become a Porn Star.” HotNewHipHop, HotNewHipHop, 3 May 2022, https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/bhad-bhabies-estranged-father-believes-shes-being-groomed-to-become-a-porn-star-news.151399.html. 

Schuster, Teresa, et al. “Society Forces Children to Grow up Too Fast Causing Negative Effects.” The Reporter: The Student Newspaper at Miami Dade College, 19 Aug. 2020, https://mdcthereporter.com/society-forces-children-to-grow-up-too-fast/. 

“Login • Instagram.” Login • Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/. 

“Neil Postman.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/biography/Neil-Postman#ref1198654.