Celebrity Culture Is Harmful to Society Essay

Celebrity culture has thrived on the need to keep up with the lives of prominent personalities on a national or global scale. Although this trend has existed for a long time, the growth of social media has recently accelerated it (Arnocky et al., 2018; Gauns et al., 2018; Ho, Lee and Liao, 2016). Additionally, the emergence of 24-hour entertainment channels on television has caused some cable news companies to exclusively air celebrity-based content, thereby fuelling the “obsession” with the lives of a few individuals in society. Particularly, the growing prominence of reality television in mainstream society has increased the obsession some people may have with media personalities because they get unfettered access to their lives. This trend has further increased the acceptance of the celebrity culture in society and not only made it a function of civilization but also a source of entertainment for millions of people around the world (Harvey, Allen and Mendick, 2015). In this paper, it is argued that celebrity culture is harmful to society because of its effects on childhood development and the glorification of wrong behaviors based on its tendency to nurture bad role models.

Traditionally, the celebrity culture has not harmed society; rather, its evolution has made it toxic. For example, in the past, society rewarded people of great merit and influence, such as Steven Hawking who was able to captivate the world by his genius (Global Education and Skills Forum, 2018) or Nelson Mandela for his contribution to humanity. These personalities created a brand of celebrity that was celebrated by everyone, mostly because of their charisma, good deeds and positive impact on society (Tanupabrungsun and Hemsley, 2018). However, over the years, most of the metrics used to evaluate these role models have changed for the worse.

Society is increasingly rewarding overhyped representations of celebrities on a global scale, thereby creating a group of bad role models to younger generations of people who look up to such figures for inspiration. Their lack of authenticity or real value is a cause of concern for societies because it is unclear why prominent personalities today are deemed celebrities when they have not had a meaningful impact on society. Relative to this statement, the Global Education and Skills Forum (2018) and Ellcessor (2018) suggest that one of the most toxic effects of the current celebrity culture is the glorification of people who are doing immoral, illegal or unethical things. Consequently, there is a near normalization of “bad behavior.” For example, more young people are increasingly idolizing infamous people, who have been involved in pornography, prostitution, theft, bigamy, drug abuse and similar vices, contrary to societal norms (Cashmore, 2006; Rajagopalan, 2019). For example, Paul Logan is a prominent YouTube Star and an influential figure among young people who uses offensive language to communicate with his audience. Similarly, he develops crass videos, which are popular but not advisable to publish.

The reality for many consumers of the celebrity culture is that the content they buy is primarily driven by popularity as opposed to quality. Popularity is a wrong measure of who to consider a role model in society. However, there seems to be little opposition from mainstream society regarding the growth of this trend because popular culture supports it and its prevalence is fanning the media frenzy feeding the public relations machine used by prominent figures in society to exert more influence on society through music, films, art, sports and similar platforms (Jain, 2015; Franssen, 2020). These developments have further entrenched the “bad behaviours” mentioned above.

Consumerism is an underlying cause of the celebrity culture because it has distorted people’s reality regarding what they should desire or aspire for as human beings. This mindless behaviour may harm people’s cognitive processes because one of the main arguments advanced for the spread of the celebrity culture is the belief that people can make reasonable judgements regarding what is good or bad for them (Ferris, 2007). While this argument may apply for adults, it does not represent the holistic picture of society because most people do not have the right tools to deconstruct the information they consume about celebrities (Kaul and Chaudhri, 2018; Krauss, 2015). For example, children cannot distinguish good and bad behaviours or celebrities that will have a positive or negative influence on their lives. When exposed to too much information on the lives of their favourite personalities, they may develop a distorted view of the world and its meaning to their lives. For example, Markham (2017) says that because of the immense exposure of children to celebrity culture, more than 60% of them in America believe that they will be celebrities. Such expectations may affect their mental health, especially after they are unable to attain these goals.

The above statistics can be explained through psychology theories, which demonstrate that children model their behaviours based on what they see adults do, regardless of whether they are good or bad. Scientifically, the problem has been associated with the underdevelopment of the prefrontal cortex part of the brain, which should enable people to control their emotions, subject to what they see on television or other forms of media (Markham, 2017). These insights demonstrate that children cannot distinguish good and bad celebrity behaviours. In today’s highly energised media environment, such populations may experience difficulties learning right and wrong behaviours (Allen, Harvey and Mendick, 2015). If the misinformation goes on unchecked, it could be detrimental to their wellbeing as adults (Markham, 2017). The current celebrity culture is blind to this fact. Therefore, it poses a major problem in society.

Overall, the insights provided in this paper show that the celebrity culture is detrimental to society because it promotes infamy and is insensitive to the inability of sections of the mass population, such as children, to distinguish good and bad behaviours. Based on these facts, the current celebrity culture is misleading because it distorts people’s reality and the values they should aspire to have. In this regard, it rewards bad behaviour and is counterproductive to social development.

Reference List

1. Allen, K., Harvey, L. and Mendick, H. (2015) ‘‘Justin Bieber sounds girlie’: young people’s celebrity talk and contemporary masculinities’, Sociological Research Online, 20(3), pp. 124-138.
2. Arnocky, S. et al. (2018) ‘Celebrity opinion influences public acceptance of human evolution’, Evolutionary Psychology, 7(3), pp. 1-10.
3. Cashmore, E. (2006) Celebrity culture. London: Routledge.
4. Ellcessor, E. (2018) “One tweet to make so much noise”: connected celebrity activism in the case of Marlee Matlin’, New Media and Society, 20(1), pp. 255-271.
5. Ferris, K. (2007) ‘The sociology of celebrity’, Sociology Compass, 1(1), pp. 371-384.
6. Franssen, G. (2020) ‘The celebritization of self-care: the celebrity health narrative of Demi Lovato and the sickscape of mental illness’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 23(1), pp. 89-111.
7. Gauns, K. K. et al. (2018) ‘Impact of celebrity endorsement on consumer buying behaviour in the state of Goa’, IIM Kozhikode Society and Management Review, 7(1), pp. 45-58.
8. Harvey, L., Allen, K. and Mendick, H. (2015) ‘Extraordinary acts and ordinary pleasures: rhetorics of inequality in young people’s talk about celebrity’, Discourse and Society, 26(4), pp. 428-444.
9. Ho, S. S., Lee, E. W. J. and Liao, Y. (2016) ‘Social network sites, friends, and celebrities: the roles of social comparison and celebrity involvement in adolescents’ body image dissatisfaction’, Social Media and Society, 8(4), pp. 1-10.
10. Jain, A. R. (2015) Selling yoga: from counterculture to pop culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
11. Kaul, A. and Chaudhri, V. (2018) ‘Do celebrities have it all? Context collapse and the networked publics’, Journal of Human Values, 24(1), pp. 1-10.
12. Krauss, L. M. (2015) ‘Scientists as celebrities: bad for science or good for society?’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 71(1), pp. 26-32.
13. Markham, L. (2017) How do children learn right from wrong? Web.
14. Rajagopalan, S. (2019) ‘Misogyny, solidarity and postfeminism on social media: the work of being Diana Shurygina, survivor-celebrity’, European Journal of Cultural Studies, 22(6), pp. 739-762.
15. Tanupabrungsun, S. and Hemsley, J. (2018) ‘Studying celebrity practices on Twitter using a framework for measuring media richness’, Social Media and Society, 7(5), pp. 1-10.