In todays world of 24/7 media young children are constantly exposed to images of their favourite pop stars or film stars. The age that children become immersed in the world of media is also getting younger as a result of the advances in media technology. Young children are still as impressionable as ever, so does this mean that celebrities should control their behaviour in order to become appropriate role models for their fans?
Firstly, celebrities are absolutely aware of the influence that they have over us normal people and more importantly over young children. It would be impossible to ignore the media hype that surrounds most celebrities. Does this mean that celebrities have a responsibility to present themselves in a certain way? To a certain extent this is true as idolisation is something that naturally comes with the job as a by-product of being famous. However, it is also true that most film stars did not decide to take up acting in order to mould the view of the public and they are of course entitled to privacy.
After all, celebrities are normal people who are talented and have been lucky enough to be put in the spotlight. They will make mistakes and should not be chastised for doing so as it is natural human behaviour. What is not natural is that these mistakes are then played out for the whole world to see. This is not to say that we should feel sorry for these celebs for being in the limelight, rather that they should learn to exert the certain amount of control that they do have to make sure that they are not setting a bad example to their young fans. We can all understand that there are certain things that a celebrity cannot control but they can control what they wear or more importantly what they are not wearing, (think Britneys knickerless scandal) and what they are pictured doing precisely by not doing it. It is not a good message to young children to see their favourite celeb falling out of a club at 3am dressed in a skimpy outfit.
Everyday both children and adults are bombarded with images of their favourite stars and it is perfectly natural that they should want to emulate them by dressing and acting in a similar way. However, if this emulation results in negative behaviour then this is when alarm bells start to ring. If we get to a stage that we are looking to celebrities to show us how not to behave rather than how we ought to behave then it is time to reconsider how we view celebrities.
Of course it is natural to be more concerned with the effect of our celebrity saturated world on children and young people than adults; after all younger people are more impressionable. But are we giving our children enough credit? Children are often cleverer and more perceptive than we think they are. People have always grown up with celebrities but there has never been as much concern about their influence as there is today. So what has changed? It is true to say that our society is extremely media saturated so perhaps it is more that we are aware of celebrity rather than celebs having a greater influence on the public.
Whatever the reason, you cannot get away from the fact that celebs do have a certain amount of influence over the public, be it the way we dress, our aspirations or the way we behave. But it is not correct to assume that all celebrity influence is negative. There are some celebs who present themselves well and do good deeds like giving money to charity. There are some celebrities who shy away from the limelight preferring to get on with their job. All we can ask from people in the spotlight is to try and live their lives as positive role models as best they can.
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