Can celebrities be good role models for us

Living within a culture that values fame and stardom, celebrities enjoy followership,
attention, and admiration from their fans. The appreciation of a famous person’s work may
expand to include interest in their lifestyle and the desire to emulate it. It is often the most pliable,
impressionable people – children, adolescents, and young adults – who form the majority of
celebrity fanbases. In their blind adoration for a favorite star and during the life period where
finding mentorship is of high importance, they often choose celebrities as role models.
Considering the immense amount of influence celebrities have on their followers, the former
should stay aware of their public image and the societal impact of their actions. 

For better or worse, celebrities have a powerful impact on how teens view themselves
and how they see the world. In fact, it’s easy to underestimate how much celebrities
influence teenage attitudes and behavior. Celebrities can have a positive influence on youth.
In fact, they can serve as role models. But famous people, whether they’re singers, actors,
and other celebrities, can also provide unhealthy examples. In particular, celebrity influence
on body image and substance use is often detrimental to teen mental health. Therefore,
teenagers need guidance on how to interpret celebrities’ influence. Adults can engage with
kids around media. In addition, they, therefore, support how children process what they’re
seeing and hearing. Moreover, parents and teachers can use celebrities’ stories as entry
points into important discussions about health and personal choices.

It is important to note that celebrities are responsible for the normalization of many
behaviors that may have been previously perceived as unusual or unwanted. Celebrities set
beauty trends that their followers, especially females, try to emulate. Such trends range from
innocuous, such as nail design or haircuts, to extremely invasive, potentially unhealthy, and
posing a danger to one’s mental and physical health.

As the social learning theory suggests, the viewers socialize through TV stars. They take
note of rewards and punishments following particular choices and behaviors. For instance, the
family’s youngest member, Kylie Jenner, came into prominence after using the infamous lip
fillers to give her lips a fuller look.
 Indeed, celebrities’ influence has not only an immediate but also a long-term effect on
many aspects of society. In recent years, celebrities have become more political than ever,
especially in highly polarized Democratic countries such as the United States. While, previously,
entertainers chose to speak out only about their art, fashion choices, and personal lives, at present
they make political statements and are not afraid to share their views. Furthermore, those who
abstain from making their position clear may be labeled apathetic and indifferent. It seems that
celebrities have the potential to make a difference in the political arena. Simultaneously, Zilinsky
et al. discovered that celebrities’ political endorsement did not lower followers’ engagement.
Fans were not annoyed with political posts, and an opposite tendency emerged. As observed by
Zilinsky et al., political messages either cheerleading one candidate or criticize the other would
lead to a surge in reposts. Therefore, celebrities do impact their fans’ political choices, which, in
turn, shapes the political situation on a larger scale. Moreover, famous people may feel excessive
pressure to engage in politics, and abstaining from it may negatively impact their careers.

The negative impact of celebrity culture is not occasional, local, or sporadic. It is

profound, and it shapes society in such ways that consequences are hard to overcome. Srivastava
et al. name mass media as one of the key drivers behind the mental health crisis in the West.
Celebrities show the idealized version of their lives that is not attainable nor even existing in the
real world. By comparing themselves to celebrities, regular people may develop inadequate
expectations of themselves, careers, relationships, and the world on the whole. In turn, depression
and anxiety are social ills that hurt economic growth, the integrity of communities and put a
heavy burden on health care. In fact, celebrities are not only setting trends in beauty and fashion
– they are among those who steer the direction in which society evolves or regresses. In the age
of globalization, such tendencies spread quickly, and influencers’ personalities play a major role,
affecting their followers.

Being an independent thinker is a rewarding path to choose and a protective factor against
many harmful decisions. Fans of celebrities have the freedom to decide for themselves whether
they want to follow the trends or pursue their own goals blindly. To a certain degree, this
argument is solid, yet it dismisses an important fact grounded in biological reality. Hence, young
fans can exert control over themselves only to a certain extent, leaving them vulnerable to the
dangers of toxic celebrity culture.