The Impact of Celebrity Culture on Today's Generation

In this essay we will discuss about celebrity culture and below are the summaries point:- Essay discusses impact of celebrity culture on new generation Rise of entertainment and social media increased transparency of personal lives of celebrities Celebrity culture influences lifestyle changes and opinions of the youth, both positive and negative.

Running head: What impact does celebrity culture have on today’s generation?
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What impact does celebrity culture have on today’s generation?
STUDENTS NAME:
2/3/2019

What impact does celebrity culture have on today’s generation?
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Introduction
This essay will aim to discuss about the impact of celebrity culture on the new generation.
With the rise of the entertainment and media industry celebrities have become extremely
important figures who are looked up to by the present generation as they are the targeted
demographic of the entertainment and media industry (Espejo, 2011). With the popularity
that social media has obtained over the last few years the transparency of the personal life of
the celebrities have also increased. Unlike earlier people now have access to information of
off-screen activities, individuality and life style of celebrities. As celebrities are a figure the
current generation looks up to whatever they do has an impact directly in their lives as well
and that is exactly what this essay aims to discuss about. Many lifestyle changes, adoption of
new activities and changes in thoughts and opinions have all been the result of the rise of
celebrity culture. This discuss will provide examples of all this along with a justification and
explanation for each of them. Both the positive as well as the negative impacts will be talked
about.
What impact does celebrity culture have on today’s generation?
The media and entertainment industry is one of the most influential industries in the world
and what makes it different from other industries is the fact that it is more transparent and the
general public especially the youth find it relatable and inspiring. The glory of the industry
attracts the youth up to an extent that they tend to aim to imitate the people who are a part of
the industry. Celebrity culture can be defined as the cultural influence that the activities and
thoughts of celebrities from the industry of media and entertainment brings in the lives of
common people due to the fact that these people idealise the celebrities and tend to wish to
have a life like them.
The rise of social media has caused in increase in the level of transparency when it comes to
the personal life of celebrities. Earlier when social media did not exist at all or at the time
when it wasn’t this big a hype that it is today people only knew their favourite celebrities
who’s characters’ they played on television or formed judgement about their life,
individuality and opinion on the basis of what they showcased on the television which was
extremely less information due to which not a lot of people were informed about it (Totman
and Marshall, 2015). After social media strengthened its grip in the world celebrities started
to open up more on these social media platforms about their real life and shared about their

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lifestyle and thoughts. Even when a celebrity did not display his/her life entirely in front of
the world the media succeeds in doing so by presenting the information in front of the world
again with the help of social media platforms (McNamara, 2016).
On looking at the glorious lives of these celebrities the present generation seems to get very
influenced by it and try to imitate their favourite celebrities by indulging in activities like
them, wearing clothes like them, imitating their lifestyle, formulating their opinions on the
basis of the ideas these celebrities follow or promote. The impact that these celebrities have
on the present youth is significantly high and has both negative as well as positive side to it.
Body image and body culture is a very important aspect when it comes to celebrity culture.
The idea of the perfect body keeps changing like trends, what was considered to be perfect in
the older generations is not quite the same in present times. With the rise of the fitness
industry many celebrities such as actors, models, fashion influencers and fitness influencers
on social media promote healthy lifestyle and gym culture that has highly influenced the
present generation to adopt this lifestyle in an expectation to get their desired body that their
favourite celebrities have. This culture has quite a positive impact as it promotes healthier
lifestyle decisions but this often comes with a negative impact as well as many young people
get excessively obsessed about their appearance and thus it impacts them negatively with
respect to their mental and physical wellness. The body culture has also promoted plastic
surgery and many celebrities such as Kylie Jenner and Cardi B claim to have gone under the
knife themselves in order to achieve looks like them. Body image has become a trend and the
curvy Kim Kardashian body is highly glorified and that is what young girls aspire to become
like. Some youngsters become the victim of eating disorders or take inappropriate dosage of
medicines to achieve such looks and others choose to get a plastic surgery. This has
influences people from the young generation to adopt these practices as well which
sometimes turns out to be hazardous and even life threatening but they are to obsessed with
their favourite celebrities to consider caring for themselves at all (Medical travel czech,
2019).
Fashion is another thing that is a result of celebrity culture, whatever celebrities wear
becomes the trend of the season and that is the biggest marketing scheme of almost all
clothing and even luxury brands (Warner, 2013). This does not seems to be threatening as it
promotes people to dress up better and look and feel better but this encourages fast fashion
that is not sustainable and is even harmful for the nature as not all people have the capability

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to buy expensive cloths and they thus tend to purchase cheap trendy ones in order to copy
their favourite celebrity’s style. Minimalism and sustainable classic clothing is obviously a
big thing in the society nowadays but celebrity culture seems to fade it away because they
highly influence people to dress up like them.
Celebrities play a major role in influencing the youth to imitate the lifestyle that they have.
Most celebrities have abundant amount of money and tend to splurge a lot on designer and
luxury items which seem to be very appealing to the newer generation who are apparently
more materialistic and they thus tend to develop a strong urge to make that kind of money in
order to be able to have the sort of lifestyle they aspire to have looking up at these celebrities.
The extreme desire of money undoubtedly motivates the youth to work harder towards
achieving their career goals as well as financial goals but sometimes they tend to participate
in unethical activities in order to make fast and easy money and do so with absolutely no guilt
because a wealthy and luxurious lifestyle is all that they wish for. It is all about directing your
energies towards the correct direction and keeping oneself determined and motivated but
honest at the same time.
Racism was very significant in older times in the media and entertainment industry and not a
lot of ethnical variation was witnessed on the television. Blacks were significantly
continuously isolated from this industry and not provided enough opportunities. Even if they
somehow managed to make a position for themselves in the industry they were treated
differently on the basis of their ethnicity. With the rise of equality movements the blacks
started to hold a strong grip in the industry eventually and today they play a major role in the
industry and are the reason where the industry is today. Most of the Rap artists both male and
female are black because they obtain the talent directly from their language and accent.
Younger people are so fond of these celebrities that they imitate them in every way possible
by changing the way they dress to imitating the way these celebrities speak (Shary, 2013).
The black colour that was earlier seen to be of lower position is highly glorified nowadays
and the body type that many black women possess due to their genetics are glorified as well.
More and more western women get their bodies modified with plastic surgery and get fake
tans in order to achieve looks similar to that of black women (Arzumanova, 2016). What
young people fail to understand is imitation of the attributes of a race in terms of appearance,
speech and lifestyle and stereotyping all people of a race is equally racist as isolating people
or treating them in a negative manner in terms of their ethnicity. This is a highly controversial
aspect with respect to the celebrity culture that has influences the present generation.

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Some other trends that the celebrity culture has glorified are polygamy, use of abusive
language in speech and in songs, changing the concept of matrimony etc. But these aspects
are more of an individual’s decision and choice rather than a rigid global issue as it might
turn out to be controversial when talked about as every person has different opinions about
these values. It can be said overall that the celebrity culture has massively influenced the
present generation and some effects are highly hazardous and has caused them mental,
emotional as well as physical damage.
Celebrity culture does not only have negative impact on the present generation some very
positive influences are also provided by it. The transparency of life of a celebrity in terms of
his/her lifestyle, thoughts and individuality does encourage the youth to indulge in many
positive practices that the celebrities themselves are a part of. Again because of the love the
present generation have for these celebrities they tend to imitate what their favourite celebrity
does and that is why when a good deed is performed by a celebrity the youngsters also get
inspired to do the same.
Many celebrities have initiated and even participated in positive movements that aimed to
bring in positive changes to the society such as body acceptance, gender equality, equality for
the LGBT community, equality of the minors etc. with the revolution the celebrities started
with the help of social media more and more youngsters got encouraged to do the same that
enabled to perform a positive deed and also provided them with education on positive
attributes, opinions and doings that bring in positive changes to the society in general.
Many celebrities perform social work in very high level in order to bring in changes into the
society and help the people who are need and are less fortunate than other. These good deeds
performed by these celebrities are being imitated by youngsters as well which can really
never be any less good for the society in general.
Women have now become more than just beautiful objects in the entertainment and media
industry and many strong women influence younger women to respect and love themselves
and work towards their goal to achieve women empowerment together (Hamad and Taylor,
2015).
The same goes for minor ethical communities and people of variable sexual orientation as the
industry has all sorts of celebrities who promote nothing but positivity and love irrespective
of any natural attribute of a human.

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Celebrities have also influences youngsters to take up their talents in this industry seriously
and work hard towards achieving it. They have inspired the youth to work towards their goal
with utmost dedication and hard work without the fear of failure.
Conclusion
This essay concludes that the celebrity culture has influenced the present generation
significantly as these youngsters tend to imitate whatever their favourite celebrities do. The
transparency to lives of celebrity has increased this imitation by provision of extra
information about a celebrity’s personal life. The celebrity culture has both positive and
negative influences on the present generation. Some positive influences include liberation of
women and minors by initiation of movements, encouragement of social welfare activities,
promoting to talk on issues such as body image, mental health etc. Some negative influences
are rise in rates of plastic surgery in order to wanting to look like celebrities, promotion of
fast fashion, defoliation in mental as well as physical health, adoption of unethical practices
to make money and enjoy lavish lifestyle etc.
References
Espejo, R. (2011). Celebrity culture. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.
McNamara, K. (2016). Paparazzi. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
Shary, T. (2013). Millennial masculinity. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Hamad, H. and Taylor, A. (2015). Introduction: feminism and contemporary celebrity
culture. Celebrity Studies, 6(1), pp.124-127.
Arzumanova, I. (2016). The culture industry and Beyoncé’s proprietary blackness. Celebrity
Studies, 7(3), pp.421-424.
Warner, H. (2013). Fashion and celebrity culture, by Pamela Church Gibson. Celebrity
Studies, 4(2), pp.258-260.
Totman, S. and Marshall, P. (2015). Real/reel politics and popular culture. Celebrity Studies,
6(4), pp.603-606.
Medical travel czech (2019). Celebrity Culture and Plastic Surgery | Medical Travel. [online]
Medicaltravelczech.com. Available at:

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https://www.medicaltravelczech.com/blog/lifestyle/plastic-surgery-and-celebrity-culture
[Accessed 2 Feb. 2019].