What Do You Mean?

About five years ago, Jimmy Kimmel brought a 3-year old onto his show with her family, to show the world the power the media has over children and adults of all ages. This 3-year old girl was originally seen in a youtube video crying over the fact that she didn't get to see Justin Bieber all day. The obsession with this male figure has made this young girl so frantic that she cries over not listening to his music or watching him perform. This is just one fan, in a crowd of millions, who have caught the catch phrased "Bieber Fever". After reading Karinol's study on adolescent females, I was immediately reminded of the video I have seen of this young girl. I wondered what a possible explanation for this could be. Could it relate to Karinol's belief that single young girls obsess over feminine boys like Justin Bieber, or is 3 too young to make that assumption? This young girl reminded me that such phenomenons can start as early as three years old.

In addition to watching this video, I also came across a few other young girls who have caught "Bieber Fever". This young girl shown in the video is the prime example of a lot of Rachel Karniol's 2001 theories. As you can see right away, this girls room is filled with Justin Bieber posters. She is wearing a Justin Bieber shirt, and voices her obsession many times. Her love for Bieber can be better understood from Karniol's study. For starters, adolescents who aren't in a relationship/don't want to be in a relationship, normally obsess or love a feminine idol, which Justin Bieber would classify as. This teenage girl (and even the 3 year old) are both not looking for relationships. However they both have love for Justin Bieber. 

 In Karniol's study, she also mentions a lot about posters. "One possibility is that posters of one's idol serve a social function, providing a shared topic of conversation with one’s close friends who are similarly going through this transition phase. Wulff (1995) found that the most common activity for her teenage sample of girls was talking with girlfriends at the same level of social and sexual experience, mostly about boys, singers, and actors, in the seclusion of the bedroom of one of the girls." (64) This girl is also of the same age as Justin Bieber and it seems that they might be going through their changes at the same time. This is probably one of the many reasons that she is so infatuated with Justin, and has really based a lot of her everyday life around him. 

I find it very interesting that people have such obsessions with famous figures. To see that a girl at 3, has the same obsession as a 15 year old girl is really crazy. The media impacts us greatly and young girls who have "Bieber Fever" are the prime example. 

Karniol, R. (2001). Adolescent females’ idolization of male media stars as transition into sexuality. Sex Roles, 44(1/2), 61-77.