Cause of Death: Celebrities
In today’s modern age, it seems like the people with the most influence on our daily lives aren’t the people that actually control our government but are instead the people that have the most followers on social media: celebrities. Instead of catching up on worldly affairs, it is safe to assume that most Americans would much rather binge watch a whole season of, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” or read the most recent scandal in Hollywood from the various tabloid magazines that line the walls of Walmart. Celebrities maintain a constant presence in our lives, whether we like it or not, and they affect us in more ways than we realize. Our obsession with celebrities negatively impact how we view ourselves because …show more content…
While the advancement of technology greatly helped society as a whole effectively communicate and share ideas across the globe, it also opened the door to a new and increasingly alarming problem: body dysmorphia. In the article, “Celebrity, Youth Culture and the Question of Role Models,” Instagram is cited as a major influence in the rise of eating disorders among young people. In this age where thin bodies are worshipped while larger ones are scorned, teenagers and young college students alike try to lose weight in an unhealthy manner in order to fit under a certain standard (Fairclough). To back up this claim that Instagram is destructive in a sense, a study was conducted among 138 female college students to see if celebrity images actually affect their mood and perspective on their body image. Unsurprisingly, the result did indeed prove that exposure to celebrity images negatively affects one’s mood (Brown and Tiggemann 37). Teenagers and young adults believe that if they look like these celebrities and attain some of their qualities, then they too will automatically be happier, healthier, and fit under society’s standard of what is deemed “normal”. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case; Zoe Brown and Marika Tiggemann’s study and Kirsty Fairclough’s article perfectly demonstrate how celebrity social media platforms are a dangerous influence on young …show more content…
Since they are only seen in a certain way, the public is made to believe that they lead flawless lives and aspire to be like them. In Aaron Franz and Adam Roscoe’s podcast episode, “The Cult of Celebrity Worship, Themes and Memes Ep18,” they discuss how fans are drawn to celebrities because of the way they are portrayed on television, in the movies, and on social media. They automatically relate that celebrity’s characteristics to the fictional character that the celebrity plays and believes that they actually act like that in real life. These “superhuman” qualities of the fictional character are not real, yet that’s why people develop a low self-esteem because no normal person can develop these characteristics. These celebrities are made to seem more godlike from these qualities, yet, in some sort of paradoxical way, they are often molded in the image that we, as normal people, believe we share some sort of connection to them and can relate, as stated in the article, “The Culture of Celebrity.” The more the public is fed information about celebrities, the less real they seem to become, and the more one obsesses over a celebrity, the more mental anguish they will go through (Neimark). Jim Neimark’s article and Aaron Franz and Adam Roscoe’s podcast perfectly explain the real story on how celebrities are shown in a certain
In today’s modern age, it seems like the people with the most influence on our daily lives aren’t the people that actually control our government but are instead the people that have the most followers on social media: celebrities. Instead of catching up on worldly affairs, it is safe to assume that most Americans would much rather binge watch a whole season of, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” or read the most recent scandal in Hollywood from the various tabloid magazines that line the walls of Walmart. Celebrities maintain a constant presence in our lives, whether we like it or not, and they affect us in more ways than we realize. Our obsession with celebrities negatively impact how we view ourselves because …show more content…
While the advancement of technology greatly helped society as a whole effectively communicate and share ideas across the globe, it also opened the door to a new and increasingly alarming problem: body dysmorphia. In the article, “Celebrity, Youth Culture and the Question of Role Models,” Instagram is cited as a major influence in the rise of eating disorders among young people. In this age where thin bodies are worshipped while larger ones are scorned, teenagers and young college students alike try to lose weight in an unhealthy manner in order to fit under a certain standard (Fairclough). To back up this claim that Instagram is destructive in a sense, a study was conducted among 138 female college students to see if celebrity images actually affect their mood and perspective on their body image. Unsurprisingly, the result did indeed prove that exposure to celebrity images negatively affects one’s mood (Brown and Tiggemann 37). Teenagers and young adults believe that if they look like these celebrities and attain some of their qualities, then they too will automatically be happier, healthier, and fit under society’s standard of what is deemed “normal”. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case; Zoe Brown and Marika Tiggemann’s study and Kirsty Fairclough’s article perfectly demonstrate how celebrity social media platforms are a dangerous influence on young …show more content…
Since they are only seen in a certain way, the public is made to believe that they lead flawless lives and aspire to be like them. In Aaron Franz and Adam Roscoe’s podcast episode, “The Cult of Celebrity Worship, Themes and Memes Ep18,” they discuss how fans are drawn to celebrities because of the way they are portrayed on television, in the movies, and on social media. They automatically relate that celebrity’s characteristics to the fictional character that the celebrity plays and believes that they actually act like that in real life. These “superhuman” qualities of the fictional character are not real, yet that’s why people develop a low self-esteem because no normal person can develop these characteristics. These celebrities are made to seem more godlike from these qualities, yet, in some sort of paradoxical way, they are often molded in the image that we, as normal people, believe we share some sort of connection to them and can relate, as stated in the article, “The Culture of Celebrity.” The more the public is fed information about celebrities, the less real they seem to become, and the more one obsesses over a celebrity, the more mental anguish they will go through (Neimark). Jim Neimark’s article and Aaron Franz and Adam Roscoe’s podcast perfectly explain the real story on how celebrities are shown in a certain