There is a place for social media in the lives of teenagers. But one particular teenager from Memphis, Tennessee, posted images that show the life of a troubled child. This particular young man decided to show what his life centers around — weed, guns and negativity. The teen, who is only identified by the name Jonathan, posted disturbing images of him holding a gun, smoking weed and acting like a typical thug. But before you criticize this young man’s behavior, one has to ask where are his parents or older siblings?
The answer to that question is tragic, because an older brother was killed by gun violence and his older sister is in jail on charges of aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, aggravated kidnapping and firearms charges. His family claims they were unaware of Jonathan’s activities until they were exposed by local media. Despite his disturbing online behavior, Jonathan had close to 12,000 social media followers on Instagram making him a very popular young teenager. When he was asked by a local reporter why he posted these images, the aspiring young rapper, whose posted lyrics include “Fifty shot, thirty shot, hit you with it … F— yo Glock. I bet I make your heart stop,” had a not-so-surprising response. Apparently, he was imitating his favorite rapper and stated, “Chief Keef got famous from that, right?”
Like many Black youngsters he was influenced by the music and imagery of the time and had little to no guidance in his home life. Since the story broke his family has stated they were upset and subsequently both his Twitter and Instagram accounts have been deleted. The question now becomes who is more to blame here? Certainly not Chief Keef. Somehow young Jonathan was given access to a handgun and what appears to be pot. That means it was someone close to this young man who decided to give him help as a young thug in training.
