Everyone wants to be the next Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber or Bill Gates. Most people have dreams of being a superstar. This is because of the present celebrity culture which is fuelled by media. From movies to advertisements to dramas to television shows, more than half of the content on media is on celebrities. Therefore celebrities have impacts on people. They are role models for people so they can have beneficial impacts on people. However present celebrity culture is harmful as celebrity styles foster unrealistic aspirations, media devotes too much to celebrity culture and the star-struck people are too overawed over celebrities. Therefore present celebrity culture has negative impacts on people. negatively impacts people.
[Since question is asking you ‘To what extent”, this would be a good time to say “it significantly impacts people.”]
Celebrities are role models compared to others because they appear on media every single day and have greater influence on people. Present celebrity culture portrays celebrities in their best appearance. They are public figures who can bring large impacts on people. A lot of celebrities set a good example. For example, Michael Jackson was the founder of Heal the World Foundation where he has donated millions of dollars to disadvantaged children. He was also named as the pop star who has supported the most charity organizations. Other than pop stars, people like Bill Gates has made contribution to society. He set up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty. People can learn from them and the fans of these two people will definitely follow their idols in contributing to society. However celebrities make mistakes at times. Celebrities cannot be role models to people as there are a lot of scandals about themselves. Paparazzi are everywhere to expose celebrities’ scandals. For example, Michael Jackson was sued for child molestation. This has created an a negative impact on people. Other than Michael Jackson, Bill Gates stole ideas from Apple Company to start up his own company, Microsoft. These are all inappropriate examples set by celebrities. Therefore celebrities are not role models to people and they bring negative impacts to people.
Present celebrity culture may foster unrealistic aspirations on people. Media always portrays celebrities in a perfect look. Almost everyday, celebrities appear on magazines, newspapers and television shows with a slim body. This causes a large impact on people. They bring about unrealistic aspirations. People may force themselves to lose weight in order to achieve a slim body like the celebrities. For example, there was news report that a young lady went on diet to achiever a slim body and died because of malnutrition. This is the result of unrealistic aspirations of people on slim body. Most of the celebrities are slim so this causes people to have the mindset that one must be slim in order to look pretty. However not every celebrity is endorsing on a weight loss advertisement. People cannot put the fault on celebrities that cause those cases of people going on diet and died but celebrities are very influential. They appear everywhere and people see them everyday. Their influence about slim body on people is very large too. Therefore present celebrity culture is harmful.
Other than unrealistic aspirations, present celebrity culture may create stereotypes on people. People see every celebrity in their best look every day on television or in magazines. Celebrities are being portrayed as beautiful ladies or handsome men. This leads to the result that many people having the stereotype of being beautiful, one needs to look like a celebrity. People are mistaken about the definition of beauty. To them, beauty seems to be all about the appearance or the outside. For example, some people spend lots money to go for plastic surgery so as to like some celebrity. To me, no one is ugly. It all depends on people’s definition of beauty. A beautiful woman with an evil thought is considered ugly but a normal-looking person with a kind heart is beautiful.
Media devotes too much to celebrity culture as celebrities are always appearing on television, magazines or other mass media. Celebrities appear almost everywhere. Their life seems to be exposed to the public. Whatever they do, wherever they go, there will be reported on newspapers or television. Media mainly focuses on celebrities’ gossip and neglects important issues. For example, in the period of Tiger Woods having an affair, media was filled with this news almost every single day. People would only focus on “unhealthy” news instead of world news. However, there are not many celebrities having an affair like Tiger Woods so media would not be filled with this type of news every day. Coming back, Tiger Woods is a public figure and is a well-known professional golfer so his impact on society is large. Therefore media was always reporting on him so media devotes too much to celebrity culture nowadays.
Present celebrity culture has caused media to be not educational. The content of media is always showing celebrities’ life or gossip. Media is a tool of education. People gain knowledge though media. Due to the present celebrity culture, media is becoming more and more not educational. People can only know gossip of a celebrity through media. For example, some news about celebrity can even go on headline news. This causes media to be “unhealthy” and does not give educational content to people. Therefore present celebrity culture is harmful.
In conclusion, the present celebrity culture is harmful to a large extent. It causes people to have unrealistic aspirations. Media is filled with celebrities’ news every day and becoming less educational. Media should not always report gossips and should focus more on important issues like economy or politics. Celebrities need to take responsibility and try to maintain their good image to the public so as to bring good impacts to people.