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I know this may sound cliche but this topic has been one that's always been in the back of head. Though it is bad I spend most of time on social media, mainly TikTok. Maybe it's just my "for you page" but I am always seeing tiktoks and comments of people defending their favorite celebrity, making accounts dedicated to them and creating fights with others about them. I also always see other tiktoks about people talking about and criticizing celebrities for not talking about something. When I chose this topic, my fyp was filled with people making tiktoks criticizing people with influence for taking a neutral stance or not saying anything about Palestine. This made me think why do we care so much about them to the point that we are getting mad at them for not saying something. My friends and I are also culprits of caring for celebs too much. My best friends were both BTS fans to the point they would talk about them 24/7 and buy endless merch from them and though I know it is controversial, I am a diehard fan of Kim Kardashian. It ticks me of when I hear something bad about her but at the same time I realize that I shouldn't care because she has done many wrongful things and I don't know her as a person to feel the need to defend her. Thinking about this made me curious on why we care about them so much.

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Though it is healthy in small doses, we should never look up to celebrities too much because we don't know these people in reality. It can cause a negative environment in which no one is truly happy if it is taken to an unnecessary level.

I also now have new questions such as

Why do people look up to celebrities so much despite being so different often?

Has celebrity status changed over the decades and became more famous?

At this rate will influencers become more important than mainstream celebrities?

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With rise of social media we also saw a rise of social media influencers. Usually they are every day people that people that blew up to fame through posting things but they have garnered enough fame to be considered a celebrity. Because they are considered more relatable and approachable, people tend to believe what they say more,. “In the present study, social media influencers refer to individuals who have gained popularity due to their social media presence and content, such as bloggers, YouTubers, and Insta famous individuals. Heralded as the new frontier of influencer marketing, social media influencers have started to secure their places in the market and are even deemed more effective in product/brand endorsement than the traditional celebrities”Stop the unattainable ideal for an ordinary me!” fostering parasocial relationships with social media influencers: The role of self-discrepancy

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296321002630

Influencer Marketing is an endorsement strategy in which influencers collaborate with brands to sell products. Because they are deemed more relatable, people tend to buy these products more often, It also more likely for younger people to see content from these influencers on a daily basis which makes them seem more like a friend. The success in this marketing is a prime example how people blindly follow celebs. They are buying these things simply because they were told to. Blindly following them comes from this para social relationship many people have with certain celebs.

Celebrities also market themselves to get you to buy their products. Celebrities are creating an image of themselves that they know are almost impossible to achieve. They want people to be jealous and to wish to be like them so they can sell things saying, “hey use this, do this and you’ll be like me”. A family who has perfected this technique is the Kardashian - Jenner family. They will sell you things like vitamins and makeup saying this is what we use. Kylie Jenner even found success in her makeup company because she sold it saying the reason her lips got so big is because she started wearing her lip liner. This strategy worked so well that in the mid 2010s, her lip products were a staple and always running out.

Another thing is that many fans buy things that are technically unnecessary such as merch from these celebrities and influencers which in turn gives them more money and fame but you lose money.

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Celebrities have been around for decades or even centuries yet our madness and craze over them only seems to be growing as time goes on. They come from mere idols you can read about in the newspaper or hear about through word of mouth to someone you search up any time you want. They are psychological things that you just want to know more and more about. It just seems you can never get enough. Oftentimes because we are so invested in their lives we become crazed fans without even knowing. We depend on them for so many things, they become our cure to anxiety or depression, they become someone you can aspire to be or someone for you to base your life around.

https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/evolution-of-the-celebrity-pop-star-socialite-history

Here's a little background on how celebrities like we know now came to be. Printing press in 16th century gave rise to public interest in politicians, philosophers, performers, and playwrights. These papers covers scandals that would peak people's interests and engage with them more. It also allowed news about to travel more. With Hollywood emerging, actors starting praised for characters they portrayed. Not only that but we started seeing a rise in celebs curating a fake image for themselves. Good example is Marilyn Monroe and how she created a dumb blonde character and became a sex symbol. In the 1950s Paprazzi became a thing and they sent out more info about celebs and were constantly trying to capture personal and embarrassing moments. These moments would create buzz. And now with social media, more info about celebs are being leaked then ever before which in turn causes them to be more influential and famous.

It is also important to understand some key terms such as.

Parasocial Relationships - “one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other's existence”( Parasocial Relationships: The Nature of Celebrity Fascinations, paragraph 1) https://www.findapsychologist.org/parasocial-relationships-the-nature-of-celebrity-fascinations/

Celebrity worship syndrome - “an obsessive-addictive disorder in which an individual becomes excessively focused on the details of a celebrity, typically a TV, movie, or pop star.”(Connection Between Celebrity Worship Syndrome & Teen Mental Health, paragraph 4) https://www.newportacademy.com/resources/mental-health/celebrity-worship-syndrome/

Cancel Culture - “refer to a culture in which those who are deemed to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner are ostracized, boycotted, or shunned” (Wikipedia, Cancel culture, Paragraph 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancel_culture

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The Evolution of the Celebrity - Celebrity Pop Star Socialite History Timeline

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L'OFFICIEL takes a look at celebrity culture and the way the idea of the celebrity has evolved throughout time.

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http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/new-age-celebrity-worship

Sadly our obsession with celebrities comes with both pros and cons. Since we look up to them so much, many people become so hurt to hear bad things about them that it creates a negative environment. A good example is of Hailey Beiber and Selena Gomez. Selena Gomez fans oftentimes hate Hailey because they feel as if she stole Justin from Selena and they villainize her. They always find bad in her even though she hasn’t necessarily done anything wrong. Another good example is Army fans often doxxing BTS haters and being notorious for changing their lifestyles to become more Korean-like. Another con is that people start doing things to become like their Idols. OLI-London is the best example of this. He’s had multiple surgeries to look like Jimin from BTS, he learnt Korean to be like him and calls himself a transracial person because he believes he has transitioned to a korean person.

“The whole Hollywood spin machine works together to create images that are  impossible for any of us to live up to. They purposefully set us up to admire and even covet something we can never have," says Aronowitz. Then, she says, when  we are completely vulnerable, they sell us the image even harder -- from headlines that titillate us with "celebrity secrets," to the books, diets, cosmetics, foods,

jewelry, and clothes that promise we'll be closer to the ones we adore. There are  fortunes being made by turning fans into victims and all it starts by creating that frenzy known as celebrity worship," says Aronowitz.” - (Star Struck).

Worshiping a celebrity or influencer too much also may cause you to have a parasocial relationship with them. This is very harmful because it creates this false narrative that you know them better than you actually know and it creates this false sense of closeness. In a way it is a little delusional because at the end of the day you don’t know them and they probably won’t even know your name or face. With all these influences that celebrities have they can endorse things and convince you to spend money on products so they can earn more. This amount of influence also created the idea of canceling culture because now they are expected to use their influence for something useful.

A pro is that oftentimes these crazes we have over celebrities aren’t that bad and many people use it as a form of escape and entertainment. Another is that simple things that these celebs may do such as take a photo of you on the street or advocate for the right thing can make you tremendously happy and want to do the same. "Celebrities can have a positive influence on our life, with positive messages. They can be very helpful in terms of increasing awareness and decreasing stigma about many problems, including health problems, that might otherwise not get the attention they need," - (Star Struck). Since so many people look up to celebrities, seeing them post their opinion on a certain topic may sway to fight for that cause. It brings more awareness to everyone around the world. One of the reason why the BLM protests got so big in 2020 is because of how many celebrities and influencers posted about it. This caused more people to know about what was going on. Another thing is knowing that a celebrity has the same issue, mentally or physically as you can be comforting to many. They realize no matter how much money you have and that this person that people covet are going to the same things and this realization might make someone feel less insecure.

Though it comes with so many negative effects, you should also acknowledge the positives. I personally do believe the negative effects outweigh the positives, so I think we should try and control how much we worship celebrities.