Public Figures Should Be Role Models

In the article, “ The Impact Celebrities Have On Our Lives,” Deborah King explores the issue of celebrities impacting our lives, both negatively and positively. To begin with, she mentions that, today, we are overly obsessed with celebrities, whether they are positive or not. The author demonstrates that negative celebrities are more well-known than positive celebrities since they are mentioned on the news due to their salacious actions. Furthermore, King mentions that there are many positive celebrities that are famous despite the negative ones. In addition, she emphasizes that even positive actions performed by celebrities can get on the news, not just negative actions are publicised. Finally, King concludes the article by mentioning that

To David Cox, writer of “Celebrity Culture Is Natural and Can be Beneficial,” the culture can help “...teenagers become more independent from their parents and makes them more popular” (Cox 4). People sometimes even look up to them as being perfect for having the ‘good lifestyle.’ In Kirsty Fairclough 's "Celebrity, Youth Culture and The Question of Role Models," she said that teenagers are likely to “connect with [celebrities] that they feel best represent them as well as those that do not” (Fairclough). And they also can get teenagers interested in politics.

Have you ever heard of any celebrities’ having irresponsible behaviors? What about ponderous, intangible actions? Or the actions of the celebrities’ hurting fans? We need to consider the role models that kids are acting on.

Athletes, singers, actors – what do all these people have in common? They’re idols; people who are loved, looked up to, and copied because they’re so good at what they do. They’re the examples every child patterns themselves after. But are they a good influence? Consider an athlete like Ray Rice, who plays well on the field, but beats his wife when the cameras aren’t looking. Or, an actor like Johnny Depp, who skillfully makes a story come to life on the screen, but slips into a drug-addict lifestyle like it’s a sweater. These are the people who will define our future – not who the new generation is, but who they look up to. If the wrong people are chosen to pattern ourselves after, it turns into chaos. For example, look at the Slender Man

Many parents teach children to look up to athletes as role models but do not know anything other than their profession. Children see athletes as gods, because of the fact that they make lots of money, and are famous. Thousands of children have been affected by their example, they are either encouraged to do better, or discouraged because they have so much room to improve. Some people like to use athletes as role models while others don’t. Athletes should not be used as role models because, people only love the athletes who win, spoiled athlete syndrome can result in bad behaviors, and most children only see the records, fame and money but do not see their habits and side activities.

Celebrities expose teenagers to partying lifestyles, profanity and inequity towards each other, using each other as if they were objects, sex, drugs, discrimination and more. Let's take Lindsay Lohan for example. A star since age six, Lohan was America’s favorite child, until she turned to drugs and alcohol. She’s now famous to the younger audience for her alcohol and drug abuse, demonstrating a harmful, reckless lifestyle to teenagers. Teaching them to have fun, do what you want, and don’t be scared of regulations and consequences. Another example, according to Deborah King, is Mel Gibson’s problems with alcohol which encourages us to take it as well, thinking it’s no harm. Another, celebrity who has a bad influence on us, is Miley Cyrus. Not so long ago, she was just a sweet little girl who was playing Hannah Montana on Disney Channel. But, now she’s appearing naked in her music videos, smoking marijuana on stage, spitting on her audience, etc. All of this has became not only her normal behavior, but also her fans’ too. Although, sometimes celebrities serve as good role models, the bad ones impact us more.

Teens today have so many bad influences in their life such as negative role models. Celebrities

Some people, like King, portrays people to be obsessed with celebrities. In Palmer’s short essay response he states, “We teenagers are passionate - maybe even obsessed - about our favorite stars, but that doesn’t make it a big problem, and it doesn’t mean we want to copy their bad behaviors” (14). I think this quote makes it clear that, Palmer believes teenagers are not influenced by celebrities negatively. For example, the results of a survey taken by several 7th graders shows that, 0.9% percent of students are inspired to do something bad because a celebrity. Students, kids

Celebrity culture is a growing issue that has been cultivated by the prosperity of social media in the modern world. Celebrity culture effects society in many different ways both positive and negative, such as celebrities being portrayed as role models in the media, and corporations using celebrity endorsement to gain clients from the existing fans of the celebrity used. The first article, titled ‘Celebrity, youth culture and the question of role models’ discusses how celebrities are portrayed as good and bad role models in the media based upon previous actions. The author of the editorial piece was ‘Kirsty Fairclough’ who published the article to ‘The Conversation’ on September 15, 2015. Fairclough takes the side of celebrities being irresponsible and not set for being role models of growing teenagers, as well as this, celebrities set extreme unreachable standards of physical beauty resulting in mental illness. The second article, authored by ‘George Monbiot’ is titled ‘Celebrity culture isn’t just harmless fun – it’s the smiling face of the corporate machine’. The opinion piece was published in ‘The Guardian’ on the 21st of December 2016. It debates the effectiveness of celebrity endorsement by large corporations in an attempt to reach out to existing fans of the celebrity. The third piece takes the form of a magazine cover from the magazine ‘Who’, the magazine publication was released on the 23rd of October 2017.

Most people would say that in order to be considered a good role model, you first need to be considered a good person. A good person is typically a person who has empathy for others, tries their best to make good decisions, and follows the law. After reading this description, of what a good person is, celebrities would not typically be the first group of people that would pop into your head because of their bad reputations, but that doesn't mean that all public figures are known for their bad choices. Celebrities should be famous for their talents and skills in some sort of field, or they could just have a great life story and have done great things in their life which inspired people to do the same. After all, everyday people run red lights all the time and no one would ever know, but the moment a celebrity gets one traffic ticket, it will be instantly posted all over every single magazine and news station. Public figures should be considered role models because, many public figures can serve as inspiration to do great things and a great example of what can happen if you make bad decisions.

In people’s life, they will meet people and they can affect their life, it just depends on if they let them. There is a group called the particular others and these people are your role models; they are the ones he or she look up to and strive to be. These people almost control what they do; there is something about them that they can’t get enough of so they try to be them. The great actor Matthew McConaughey once said “that the person he looks up to is himself in 10 years from now, and no matter how hard he tries he will never be that person because it is 10 years ahead of him”. That is what the particular other should be, but instead it is a person we can’t be.

Do celebrities make bad role models? I believe they do. Kids see celebrities in the news everyday and mimic what they do, thinking that they should be like them. But that is wrong. Most celebrities don’t know what they are doing in their life because they have a hard time telling reality from fantasy. They are like you and me, but people think that they are more than that. Most magazines and movies have pictures/videos of airbrushed celebrities and when teenager look at these they start believing that looking like how celebrities do is the only way to be popular and loved.

Many times we find that young people look up to athletes. There are countless community centers that offer different athletic programs. Many times there are young people with endless talent and ability, striving to be just like their favorite athletes. There are a number of good athletes that display an incredible amount of perseverance in their everyday lives. This alone serves as inspiration to young people.

Watching reality TV shows like Keeping Up With the Kardashians where reality TV stars become famous by just living a luxurious life, teens or even adults might be encouraged that anyone can be famous by going on TV status and just “being themselves”, without any efforts or special talents. As John Humphrys points out, 'we tell kids what matters is being a celebrity and we wonder why some behave the way they do. This can build their desire of fame and to pursue celebrity status while ignoring the importance of education. Hence, reality TV discourages the value of hard work and education (IDEA,

Role models in the media are also essential for young people. These are idols, actors, athletes, authors, politicians, revolutionaries or any other person who is known because of their fame. Media role models have a high influence over young people because they are often placed on a pedestal, and worshipped like gods. It is important for youth to be wary of negative media role models because they may glamorize truly wrong values. An example of this is seen if we look at Paris Hilton. She lives a fascinating and alluring lifestyle, yet was convicted for driving under the influence of alcohol. Because of her, many other young girls may believe that drinking and driving is okay, or even cool. Role models in the media are important because of the widespread effect they have on youth all over the world.