How To Train A Teenage Celebrity
If you think about it, we, as the audience and consumer, decide what is acceptable behavior from a teenage celebrity. If a politician does something we disagree with, they are snubbed, and/or voted out of office or lose their chances at re-election. What happens to a kid that is way overpaid and acts out in a way no one finds acceptable (except maybe a like-minded kid) – more fame and money. I have an idea…let’s train the up and coming teenage celebrity like we would a dog.
A favorite approach while training a dog is to reward a desired behavior the second it occurs. The positive behavior may be anchored with a treat, verbal praise such as “good dog”, and/or a vibrant “yes” as they are rewarded. This works well for most dogs.
Old school training focused more on the correction aspect of the behavior. The undesired behavior or lack of a response to our command, and the dog was corrected. It worked but most found the positive training approach easier on the human and the dog and they still obtained the desired result.
Let’s practice a similar approach to training humans. What if everyone ignored the unwanted behavior of celebrities/musicians and only rewarded the desired behavior or what we are actually paying them to do? Imagine the surprise of a young musician like Justin B. when they disappear from the limelight while acting out. We would merely be ignoring the poor behavior in anticipation of a positive experience for them when they do good. As it is now, the worse the behavior, the more they are noticed which serves to get them more attention thus rewarding the behavior and encouraging more of the same. Any dog knows this.
It seems we have things backwards. The more outrageous someone is, the more attention they receive. I know that’s how it is and has been. I know the more severe a behavior and the more destructive a movie, the higher the sales. For those of you thinking it’s all no big deal and want to tell me to just turn off my TV, I will and do. That won’t stop me from being amazed and disappointed that so many are willing to promote (with money and lots of it) such annoying, unacceptable behavior.
I can’t tell you a single song that Justin sings, but I know he egged his neighbors house and has a drugs/alcohol problem. Why is that glorified? I may be a minority – no, I know I’m a minority, but I don’t care what an actor or musician does other than the expectation that if they are in the public eye, they act like we’re paying them for good behavior. Quite the opposite is true, and our society is at fault.
I know I will be waiting alone and for a very long time before I give up a, “good boy” to Mr. B. For now, I’ll stick with training dogs.