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Suzanne Green
English 102
Padgett
5 April 2016
The Celebrity Influence
Most of the world has been exposed to some level of celebrity culture. The mass media
keeps celebrities at a center of attention in most countries, with heavy influence over their wide
fan base. This influence reaches around the globe and can have severe negative effects. Because
celebrities are incorporated into peoples lives at a very young age so many individuals struggle
with unrealistic connections to celebrities, seeded in their minds from the time they were babies.
This unrealistic friendship between individuals and the celebrities can lead to anything from
depression, to personality and eating disorders. This leads to the question, are celebrities a
positive influence on society? The answer is no. I find that many celebrities are leaving a very
negative influence on their fan base, damaging society as a whole in the process. By looking at
the celebrity influence in culture we can see their negative impact on society; this is important
because many fans lose a sense of identity, some developing disorders.
Celebrities have become a part of society. Intertwined into popular culture throughout
time, now they are of the utmost popularity than ever before. The question becomes, how did this
occur, and why is it that so many of us feel the need to follow these celebrities? The answer is
simple. Starting at a young age members of society have become involved with celebrities. The
celebrities are everywhere, even if a child were to have no access to internet or television, they
would still see celebrities on magazines or posters in every day locations like supermarkets and

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shopping centers. Because of this, a connection is made between a child and celebrity. The child
may not know who it is, what they act like, what they do, but they will know what they look like.
This simple knowledge of knowing what a celebrity looks like has a large impact on an
individual. Every time the child sees that celebrity, a greater connection of familiarity is
achieved. This leads to an unrealistic connection between the child and the celebrity. In their
mind, it is almost like seeing a family friend or acquaintance. This personal connection to
celebrities that begins at an infant age is the layout for that childs connection to fame and
stardom. Overtime, this has happened with every generation, each one winding out to be more
obsessed than the last over celebrity culture. It is simple to understand why celebrities are such a
large part of society now, we are comfortable with them. People are comfortable with these
people, they understand these people. It is exciting to a society as a whole to watch a particular
person in their daily life, to criticize, and to lust for. A study on adolescents of the Netherlands
found that most everyone has some kind of relationship with a celebrity, no matter how minor.
As described by Lindenburg, the prestige-generating power of success makes celebrities special
and gives them the power to exert normative influence (Lindenburg, 103). No matter the
seriousness of a relationship, celebrities still impact everyone in some kind of way.
Unfortunately, much of this influence is negative.
Most of all celebrities do not have a positive influence, most are definitely not
inspirational material as so many view them to be. A study found that children with a strong
connection in celebrities tend to have low levels of self-esteem and life satisfaction, but high
levels of materialistic values. As described in the article, adolescents who demonstrated
higher levels of entertainment-social values were more likely to compare themselves with the
celebrities. The comparison, in turn, is associated with adolescents materialistic values (Chia,

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34). Materialistic values are certainly a negative effect that many individuals, not just children,
gain through following a celebrity. Celebrities teach the world that how you look and what you
wear are the most important qualities, as it is for them. It is a shame that this is how so many
view themselves, as academic and personal values go beyond what looks and objects can do for a
person in todays world. This is why celebrities have a negative effect. Comparing ones self to a
celebrity can begin a chain of negative feelings from an individual simply because their life does
not match up to the celebritys life.
Overtime the relationships will grow stronger and stronger between a fan and their
favorite celebrity. Teenagers are particularly effected by stars because they are growing into
themselves, trying to figure who they should be and how they should look. The connections built
at this age are crucial to the future of many individuals. A broad survey of high school students
found that many understood that the celebrity level of perfection was unrealistic, but they still
strived to reach that level. As described in the article, girls understood that the images were
unrealistic, and although they disliked the anxiety- producing gap between their own physical
appearance and a media-generated ideal, they still desired such an appearance, attempted to
attain it, and felt bad when they did not measure up to the media image of femininity (Milkie,
203). This feeling of not reaching ones potential can very well be the start of eating disorders in
many adolescents. In this same article, many girls claim to be comfortable in their body, but
work in the way they do to impress the boys. They have come to the belief that all men want
what is in the magazine. This struggle between happiness in self verses happiness in physical
appearance is the basis to many disorders that come from celebrity induced beliefs, as society is
being taught that looks are everything.

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The materialistic values developed by an individual influenced by celebrities can have
severe impacts. A person who constantly compares themselves to a celebrity may struggle from
emotional and physical disorders. The sad truth is that many of those effected by anorexia and
bulimia claim that celebrities have been a main cause of influence. As Polivy found in her eating
disorder research, body dissatisfaction and drive for thinness were associated with increased
exposure to certain types of TV shows (Polivy, 192). It can be imagined that these TV shows
mentioned are not shows like Family Feud or the news, but rather unrealistic shows like Keeping
up with the Kardashians and Pretty Little Liars. The disease for so many of these top-notch fans
have ended in decease. This issue is starting from a very young age, body image is even on the
mind of innocent ten year olds of todays world. Research taken by The National Eating Disorder
Association claim that 42 percent of first- through third-grade girls say they want to be
thinner, and 81 percent of 10-year-olds are afraid of being fatMore than half of 9- and 10-yearold girls said they feel better about themselves if they are on a diet, according to NEDA.
(Miller). This is ridiculous. The youth of our society is being brainwashed to believe that the
most important attribute they can give to the world are their good looks. This mindset is coming
directly from the celebrities and models displayed so heavily in the media. Celebrities have a
negative impact on adolescents that can lead to eating disorders.
Celebrities also have a large emotional impact on many of their fans. They are often used
for advertisements because so much of the world will follow whatever it is that the celebrity is
endorsing. For fans struggling with depression, a tragic incident with their favorite celebrity
could send them over the edge. A study on depressed individuals in Taiwan studied the reactions
of a celebrity suicide on fans. The fans were given the news that famous Taiwanese celebrity MJ
Nee had committed suicide. After the news was told the participants were monitored for any

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strange behavior. The research found that 88.1% of the participants attempted suicide after
hearing the news on Nee (Cheng, 74). The celebrity influence is all too powerful in the lives of
individuals. It seems as though much of all individuality is being lost in the constant desire to be
someone else. Chengs study on the effect of a celebrity death makes it all too clear that society
is too involved with the famous. It should never get to a point where someone is willing to
commit suicide to be just like their favorite celebrity, yet somehow it does. This is why celebrity
influence is negative. Although this is an extreme case to point out, it needs to be noted that
people are actually willing to die to be similar to a celebrity. Celebrities can have severe
emotional power and influence over their fans.
Although it is clear that celebrities have made a direct negative influence on many
individuals, many claim that it is only individual, not reaching the point of a societal level of
issue. Aruguette claims that Celebrity worship, enjoyment of sexualization, and eating
pathology might be causally related (Aruguette, 231). She claims that it is only a casual relation,
nothing of a real society issue. This goes against my argument that celebrities negatively impact
society as a whole. The idea that individual problems do not contribute to a greater problem is
unrealistic. The more individuals becoming heavily involved with celebrities the heavier the
issue, and the wider the range of those severely affected. This may have very well have been a
personal problem for a few individuals a few decades ago, but celebrities are now more popular
than ever, therefore more dangerous in the amount of influence they have. The question now
becomes, what can a person do to stop this? Individually, people can stop following the
celebrities and focus on self-value. This would overtime lead to a lack of popularity in celebrity
culture. The problem with that is that it would be almost nearly impossible to complete because
so much of society are already so deeply invested in this culture. A better possibility to stop this

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problem would be to change the kinds of celebrities that reach popularity. Or better yet, change
the way that advertising works in general. Much of the world would be pleased if the girl on the
magazine were a realistic weight. The real issue is that no one is being told that that look is not
realistic and that person is not perfect, this is why people feel so uncomfortable in their own
bodies. Perhaps over time we can see an increase in more realistic body types in celebrities who
do not care so much about materialistic value, as has begun with those like Amy Schumer and
Melissa McCarthy. Society as a whole is slowly growing in a more positive direction by
incorporating positive role models. It will just take time to see how the celebrities and
advertising will shift over the next few decades, hopefully to come are positive role models.
Celebrities have been incorporated into all of our lives from an infant age. As an
individual grows older, they grow stronger bonds with these celebrities that can lead to extreme
materialistic value and unhappiness in their own body. Celebrities have a direct cause on many of
their fans eating disorders and depression. The solution to stopping negative celebrity influence
is to incorporate new celebrities with more realistic qualities over time. By looking at how
celebrity culture has impacted society it can be decided that celebrities have a more negative than
positive impact on their fan base.

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Works Cited
Aruguete, Mara, et al. "Body Image And Celebrity Worship." Implicit Religion 17.2 (1
June2014): 223-234. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Mar. 2016.
Cheng, Andrew T.A., et al. "The Influence Of Media Reporting Of A Celebrity Suicide On
Suicidal Behavior In Patients With A History Of Depressive Disorder." Journal Of
Affective Disorders 103.1-3 (2007): 69-75. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Feb.
2016.
Chia, Stella C., and Yip Ling Poo. "Media, celebrities, and fans: An examination of adolescents'
media usage and involvement with entertainment celebrities." Journalism & Mass
Communication Quarterly 86.1 (2009): 23-44.
Lindenberg, Siegwart, Janneke F. Joly, and Diederik A. Stapel. "The Norm-Activating Power Of
Celebrity: The Dynamics Of Success And Influence." Social Psychology Quarterly 74.1
(2011): 98-120. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Feb. 2016
Milkie, Melissa A.. Social Comparisons, Reflected Appraisals, and Mass Media: The Impact of
Pervasive Beauty Images on Black and White Girls' Self-concepts. Social Psychology
Quarterly 62.2 (1999): 190210. Web...
Miller, Alison. "Column: Idolizing Celebrities Negatively Affects Teenagers' Self-images."
<i>Collegiate Times</i>. Collegiate Times, 8 Feb. 2008. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
&lt;http://www.collegiatetimes.com/opinion/column-idolizing-celebrities-negativelyaffects-teenagers-self-images/article_5ca395b8-824e-5e34-b2a7-3d8934a8cada.html&gt;.

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Polivy, Janet, and C. Peter Herman. "Causes of eating disorders." Annual review of psychology
53.1 (2002): 187-213.