Being a Famous Person

Throughout society, the media is taken over by celebrity news which has shaped the very world we are in today. The news is mostly focused on the celebrities in films and television shows personal life, as most people know about these celebrities more. They might also include music artist and other well-known people in the entertainment business because people also want to know about their life. Celebrities are a very popular topic featured in the news because they create lives and drama that entertain the people. Pretty much everyone in today’s society are interested in what the celebrities are wearing, eating, doing on a day to day basis, and even the bad side to their lives like scandals and drama. Maybe we are at a store and remember that a famous youtuber review a product and said it was not so great, remembering that we probably will not buy it because of that influence from the celebrity. Celebrities impact and shape our lives more than we realize whether it be positively or negatively. 

Pop culture is ideals that are popular among the people that use influences from celebrities. “As the ‘culture of the people’, popular culture is determined by the interactions between people in their everyday activities: styles of dress, the use of slang, greeting rituals and the foods that people eat are all examples of popular culture”(Delaney, 2007). Certain foods or clothing items only become popular because of celebrities. Without that celebrity influence that certain item may not have ever been seen as something everyone should want or need. With that celebrity influence, certain stuff can be negatively portrayed. Media has become a significant influence on pop culture. “Pop culture is manifested around the world through movies, music, television shows, newspapers, satellite broadcasts, fast food and clothing, among other entertainment and consumer goods”(The Levin Institute 2017). It influences basically our daily lives. From who we read about to who we are watching on television, there is no stop to this influence. Pop culture has always made us think, how do you define a “celebrity”. Is if from how many instagram followers or how dramatic their life is compared to others. What makes a celebrity a celebrity. “We examine whether image congruence (IC) of celebrities have significant effect on purchase intention (PI) and whether attitude towards brand and attitude towards advertisement mediate the relationships in a developing country, based on sample data from India”( Paul, Bhakar 2018). 

Even in developing countries celebrities still influence the mass social media. Growing up kids alway want to meet their favorite celebrity because they have influenced their life choices. People go crazy when they see celebrities in a public place and immediately want to take photos, have them sign what seems valuable to us, and have an overwhelming flow of emotions like crying or screaming. “While we often assume celebrities are self-absorbed and ego-driven, they can actually teach us something quite lovely about appreciating what we’ve achieved—and recognizing the people who helped us get there”(Kaplan 2015). Celebrities are not just these stuck up people.They have emotions and feelings too that drive their hard work ethics. Celebrity culture and their life are increasingly impacting on young adults by setting a false example of their body image and their life choices. Most of us are at least somewhat in touch with the latest news on the Kardashians, and at some point in time have probably obsessed over the new popular boyband. On most social media outlets, we see pictures of famous actors, socialites, models and singers. 

Celebrity culture is a huge part of society today, especially in the United States, and it probably plays a bigger part in your own life than you may know. However, it may also have more of a negative effect on you than you thought possible. Most people consider obsessing over their favorite band and its lead singer as harmless fun. What you may not realize is that by idealizing all these people you don’t know, you’re putting them on a pedestal that they’re probably not equipped to stand on. Most of these celebrities are just normal people that the business has taken advantage of and, using the media, blown up into a sensation for young people. Some of them are barely teenagers and haven’t formed an identity on their own before being so exposed to the public eye and its criticism. Imagine you’re a 17-year-old, not even out of high school, and now every teenage girl in the United States is looking at you saying “I wanna be just like you” and “You’re my hero.” The pressure on these people is too much and it turns the focus away from their actual talents, or what’s supposed to be the real reason they got famous. This usually causes them to eventually turn to drugs, violence or some other form of rebellion. So many young people, when asked who their hero or idol is, will say someone famous who they most likely have never met, instead of a relative, friend or mentor from their own life. To say that someone you’ve never met is “your hero” is assuming that this person is exactly the way they present themselves to the cameras. 

What we fail to realize is that we don't actually know them, however much we may think we do because we follow their Twitter account. Idealizing these people unconsciously makes us feel like someone in our life is eventually going to have to live up to that ideal in order to be “good enough” for us. Watching celebrities eat expensive meals with their model girlfriends is only going to make us unsatisfied with our own life, thinking that we need to have those same things in order to be happy.     

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