Cause and Effect of Glamorized celebrity lifestyle

Cause and Effect of Glamorized Celebrity Lifestyle

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Introduction

With every action comes a definite equal and opposite reaction. As life has taught us, everything that has happened or is currently happening will pave the way for the future. It is an unavoidable truth we just have to submit to.

Living in a technological era where vast amounts of information can be accessed at the mere click of a button, we are in danger of being exposed to too much negative information.

The media is filled with images, videos and blogs about tacky celebrities with no moral compass. The over glamorized lives of celebrities has had far-reaching effects, touching on teenagers, their families and to an extent even fellow celebrities. Teenagers are falling into depression trying to cope with fast changing trends, families are falling out over disputes and the competition among celebrities has turned toxic. Lots of parents are concerned with the overall content these "role models" are putting on the media and how it is causing their teenagers to view themselves.

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When teenage girls flip through YouTube and other television channels, they are bombarded with constant videos showing video-vixens skimping around barely dressed with, fact is, "too good" bodies. Instead of celebrating diversity in beauty, we want to celebrate a particular body type and skin tone. The effect is that these girls take this as the standard of beauty. That it is the ideal societal standard of beauty for the female species. They will do everything in their power to try and look like these celebrities that all the boys are ogling after.

Boys too have their fair share of the burden. They spend constant mental effort obsessing about gaining muscles to achieve a certain body weight that celebrities have set to be the standard. The effects of this are not only detrimental to their physical health but also to their mental and emotional health.

This comparison and desire to achieve a certain body type has led to many problems such as depression and anorexia. The situation is made all the more worse when a teenager's efforts are futile and no progress is being made towards getting those "six-pack abs" or becoming a "size 8". Michelle New a PhD in Kids Health states that "Most celebrities in advertisements, movies, TVs and sports are very thin and this may lead girls to think that the ideal for beauty is extreme thinness. Boys too may try to emulate a media ideal by trying to restrict their eating and compulsively exercising to build muscle mass." Boys are sometimes forced to inject themselves with toxic amounts of steroids while girls prescribe themselves to gluten free diets just because their friends are also doing it. The effects of this on their physical health could be near fatal. Steroids may cause them mood swings and acne (National Institute of Drug Abuse 2016) while the girls will probably suffer the effects of eating meals deficient of vital nutrients.

Celebrities can live very daring lives, throwing all caution to the wind. After all they live to be in the lime light, to do something different just to gain attention and they have the money to back up such a lifestyle. This is all fine until the media follows them and what they do is plastered throughout social media. It then becomes what is termed as "cool". Soon enough every teenager is doing it. Everyone needs a role model and celebrities easily fit in into that position but when they make wrong choices, the people that look up to them are likely to follow suit. Take for instance the practice of tattooing, long disapproved by society, and is now quite prominent among celebrities. The media glamorizes these tattoos, creating entire talk shows centered on discussing the trendiest tattoos among celebrities. Teenagers begin piercing and tattooing their bodies to look like their role models, oblivious of the repercussions it will have in their near future. Tattoos pose a risk of infection, affect your sweating and may hinder employment, as is some policies in some firms not to employ individuals with tattoos. Another effect is the extremely high cost of removing a tattoo.

Another issue is the use of drugs and alcohol that has been greatly glamorized by celebrities. Many advertisements about a new alcoholic drink or a quality brand cigarette are done by celebrities who are paid lots of money to look flashy holding the drink and smoking having a great time. In some cases, these celebrities do not even use the alcohol they are advertising because they know the effects it would have on their health and are just making money. While others, in the spirit of throwing caution to the wind, use the drugs, do not care about the effects and through their platforms encourage fans to use them as well. An excellent example is Wiz Khalifa in his song "French Inhale" and "Still Blazing", where he emphasizes usage of marijuana and the feel good effect it causes. The result of this is the increased usage of marijuana by the teenagers who are his fans. They are likely to over dose, becoming addicted and it is a downward spiral from there.

It is no secret that celebrities are trend setters in society. Through their platforms they showcase various dressing styles that would cause any normal person to take one look and cringe. What most people forget is that whatever they are seeing on social media is not the real lives of these celebrities or even if it is they don't care, after all it is their job. Take for instance Lady Gaga's bizarre attire. You would not catch

Most of what they say is taken as religion by their fans with fanatic tendencies, and the media only makes it worse by This blind devotion to

When we see

The glamorization of celebrity lifestyle goes beyond just the grapevine of who was wearing what and doing what. The popularity of celebrity interviews means that celebrity culture reaches deeper into celebrities' lives, some aspects of their opinions and views are communicated greatly to the public. Yet their professions do not qualify them in any way to be talking about the matters they discuss. Since they have such an influence and the media casts these messages as if they were the gospel truth, celebrities' opinions take root and form the basis for decisions most fans make. The truth of the matter is most celebrities are ignorant of the issues that come up during such interviews. Take Shailene Woodley for example, who announced that she is not a feminist just because she does not hate men. She is a classic case of a celebrity who has denounced feminism and in so doing exposed her ignorance of the matter. As if that was not disappointing enough, the attention that her words received was baffling. Her words were dismissible by any informed adult but what about her fan base that comprised of teenage girls? Her opinion on feminism has now become their opinion on feminism, and their friends, and their friends' friends. You get the picture of a chain reaction. Woodley is entitled to her own opinion, however incorrect it may be, but that does not mean the media should spread them around.

However, in some cases celebrity opinion does indeed have positive effects.

Teenagers have constantly been exposed to things that are wrong because growing up this is what they saw celebrities doing. According to these celebrities and the shows in which they are cast, these things they do are not wrong. Reality shows like "Keeping up with the Kardashians" or "Teen Mom" are very popular among them. They begin to realize that to become famous and popular they should follow certain bad habits depicted in these shows. A psychologist, Dr Brow Holloway, says that, "Unfortunately when you have someone constantly fighting, drunk and hooking up on television or in a movie, it does glamorize it to a certain degree."(Today Show, 2016) That bad boy/girl picture is just glamour for the camera. It literally is acting. However, most teens fail to realize this and they take it out into the real world. In countries where they can get easy access to guns, this becomes the new way of settling disputes. Boys form gangs that terrorize the community. Teenagers engage in sex activity from an early age just because it is what they see on television most of the time. The results of these ranges from increased insecurity to infection by sexually transmitted diseases.