Should Celebs Be Considered Role Models?

In this world people put lots of stress on celebrities to be perfect all the time. Celebrities are worldwide. Celebrates cannot walk down the street without being bombarded by paparazzi. All of that comes with a reason. Kids look up to them, so celebrities have to be media train. Like with rappers, most of their characters portray a life full of crime and enjoyment. Children see that and they think its real life. Kids are on the internet doing ridiculous things to get frame. In this day and age with no free thinkers pop culture is effecting the youth.

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.

Most teenagers admire celebrities. Unfortunately, there are many celebrities that display negative behavior. This heavily influences teens to act in negative ways as well. King states that, “The sad fact is that we are more enthralled by celebrities who have bad reputations than celebrities who are excellent role models. As parents or mentors,

Media such as the internet, broadcasting, and publishing is a way to express opinions and keep up to date with the latest fashion trends. While these trends continue to go on, new trends are thought of, the trends may be a little tricky to keep up with even for celebrities. While the thought of being perfect for society, cause many adolescents to breakdown for following the false beliefs of society. Some people may use the media to be updated on important news. On the other hand, others believe the media is a horrible setting, resulting in adolescent to do whatever it takes to become just like them, poisoning their minds to become something they are not. The media produces bad influences for body image and messes with adolescents’ minds.

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

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.

That is the biggest effect of pop culture and said perfectly in Culture and Communication: Basic Concepts by Stan Le Roy Wilson, “ It can be so pervasive that we seldom notice it.” These teens do not view changing their ways as modeling them after what they see on tv, but because it how they think everyone acts, therefore how they should act. Moreover, maybe I wasn’t acting like them at all, maybe they were acting like me and I just did not notice it. In the video by Frontline, their reporter Rushkoff says. "Kids' culture and media culture are now one and the same, and it becomes impossible to tell which came first--the anger or the marketing of the anger.” It is statements like this that show how teen culture is very hard to grasp and why the market for it is always in flux. Another point referenced, this one at the begin of the video, was that how teens spend $100 billion dollars of their money, and $50 billion of their parents money per year. This shows just how far kids will go to spend every dime they can get their hands on to dress cool, have the coolest technology, or even rock the coolest backpack to school. The media has turn what should be a time of growth and self-discovery for these kids into a time where all they want to

Media has a lot to do with adolescent substance abuse. Many times in advertisement, adolescents see people drinking alcohol and having a great time. Media spends over $25 billion dollars on advertisement yearly. Many celebrities are seen smoking or drinking alcohol in movies, TV, and on commercials. This makes adolescents think that drinking, smoking, and taking drugs are cool and will make them popular. Over 5000 deaths yearly are caused by alcohol consumption. (Strasburger, 2010)

In today’s society, is the media mirroring our behavior, or are we mirroring the media’s portrayal of us? That question was posed in the documentary “The Merchants of Cool”, narrated by Douglas Rushkoff. This program examined the teenage culture and how the media is used to manipulate and portray our generation. With examples from Sprite, MTV, WB, and other massive media outlets, evidence is shown that our media-teenager relationship is tainted with sex, music, rebellion and a broad image of what it is to be “cool”. Most of the images portrayed of teenagers aren’t the best. With TV shows such as “MTV Spring Cruise”, teenagers are shown as sex-driven, reckless kids. TV corruption is just one of many examples of the blurred line between reality and perception in media and advertising.

Being a celebrity is not all it is cracked up to be. They have to deal with situations that the average citizen most likely cannot relate to. For example, many celebrities constantly encounter paparazzi who stalk them in order to take their picture, invading their privacy. Celebrities must also juggle demanding jobs, while maintaining a home life that many attempt to live as normally as possible. Celebrities lead busy, hectic lives that require them to appear in public frequently, exposing themselves to intense scrutiny; nonetheless, the private lives of celebrities should be off limits because everyone has a First Amendment right to privacy, it is invading their privacy not our business, causes different problems such as serious damage problems that might end up messing with their careers, and affecting family members in a negative way.

What are the negative effects of social media on young teens and the future generations? Elise White, the author of “Does the Media Negatively Affect Teenagers?”, explains the negative effects of media on teenagers, and she includes Sex, Violence, Money, and Body Image, as the major factors. She also says, “If a Teenager is responsible for a violent act, society is convinced that media/Video games is the main cause.” (Elise White 1). Out of all these negative factors, society believes that Body Image is the one that effects the most. An average fashion model is thinner than ninety eight percent of women. Advertisements only work to publicize their brand/products, such as; toothpastes, makeup, clothes, and so on. Young teens are exposed to such unrealistic image and are encouraged to place more importance on their appearance than a healthy life. This advertising pays for all forms of media, including movies, magazines, websites and phone applications. These advertisements lead to low self esteem and insecurity among teenagers. It can also lead to emotional and mental issues like depression if they do not achieve so called “Perfect bodies”. In today’s society, owning something that everyone has or is trending like, makeup, branded clothes, and fancy gadgets is considered to be “Cool” and socially acceptable. Violence and Sex are the other important negative factors, as teenagers are influenced by the movies and video games they watch and play. Music videos these days portray a very violent and sexual image and meaning, which impacts the way many teenagers

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.

The media is a huge part in everyone's lives and they have a great influence on the actions we partake in on a daily basis. Though adults don't usualy fall into the pressure of the media, young children and teenagers ae highly sussestable to what the media is telling them to do and what's 'cool'. A major action glorified by the media is smoking and it pressures minors to take up the horrible habit as an attempt to be happy or some how be like their favorite celebrity. Media and holly wood especially have both contributed to an era of people smoking and are a direct cause for the increase of youth smoking today.

During these times, once you turn on your television set you are abruptly notified on yet another absurd act that a celebrity had committed the night before. The media becomes engrossed by the despicable behavior and ravages at it as if it was the final grain of rice. Once they have completed a story that is at the right level of crudeness, they deliver it to the public. The vulgar news reaches households all across the world, and then it soon pollutes the minds of innocent and young children. At a young age, boys and girls commonly compare themselves with reference groups of people who occupy the social role to which they desire. The constant negative and sometimes provocative images that are displayed by celebrities are what define