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The Psychology of Fame Essay

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The progress of fame is closely related to the progress of technology and business. New technologies emerge and allow for new methods of communication. New forms of communication come with new forms of media and advertisement to target their audiences. A good example of this is the formation social networking such as Facebook and Twitter which encourage individuals to display themselves to a worldwide audience. In consequence, these growing social media sources are prime locations for business to place advertisements because of the growing audience. As new innovations emerge, a societies’ values and norms may adapt accordingly to fit with new trends and norms the citizens will adopt. Therefore, according to Uhls and Greenfield of the …show more content…

This is a constant finding in developed countries, where an ideal partner would be one who is an athletic, laid-back person, while in underdeveloped countries an idea partner would be someone who has responsibilities (316). This suggest a major dilemma for future generations where desires for leisure, glamour and popularity over hard work, solving problems and fulfilling self-potentials. It seems evident as to how this phenomenon if “fame” is becoming so dominant in Western societies, but not why is it the fact. John Malbity (et al. 2008) sought to determine patterns in the thought processes of those who desired to be famous among the general population. Within two linked studies, personality traits were used to describe the characters of people who would desire to be famous. Nine traits emerged from individual theories and ranged from “Ambition”, “meaning derived through comparison with others”, to “psychologically vulnerable” and “attention seeking”. The most common theory which was derived from the two studies was that altruistic behavior and compassion was not compatible with traits associated with fame and glam. While the desire for fame is rising and expanding due to technology, so is the potential development of these negative traits. Accessible social networking media such as Youtube, allow for regular people to broadcast themselves in videos

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