NEGATIVE INFLUENCES OF CELEBRITIES ON TEENS

Technology has given people easy access to everyone’s lives. Fans are able to feel a part of their favorite celebrity’s everyday life by tracking their whereabouts. They feel up-to-date on what is happening in their lives. Thus, giving them a connection and a sense of closeness to celebrities. The ability to constantly know what is happening with celebrities—what they are wearing, where they are going, and what they are interested in—affects how society lives their lives. People feel the need to emulate their favorite star, so they imitate their clothes, accessories, and even attempt to attend the same type of places.

Teenagers are the most common people trying to copy their idols. Celebrities have the easiest time influencing teens because they are so vulnerable. Teenagers are in search for self-esteem, their identity, and a “cool” self-image. All of these aspects of a teenager’s life are detrimental to who they will become. The power of the celebrity has taken control of these teens and ended with negative influences.

A teen needs to satisfy his need for love, acceptance, and success in order to experience high self-esteem. He gains his self-esteem by pleasing his parents, peers, and society. This is a time in an adolescent’s life where they feel the most need for acceptance. This need for acceptance drives teens to be more experimental, innovative, and sometimes controversial. They are at a time in their life where they keep reinventing themselves. They may start out as a jock, then become a punk, then preppy, and so on and so forth.

According to Teenager Research Unlimited, fun is the number one description for the teenage generation. Teenagers emphasize freedom, yet do not want to take on the responsibilities and obligations of adults. Fun links the teens to experimentation with illegal or illicit substances. Their ideas on life are more in the clouds than in reality. Teens are thinking, dreaming, and even planning a few years ahead. This, in turn, is making celebrities a few years older than them more desirable. Teens are fans of Miley Cyrus, who was caught on film smoking marijuana, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, who went to jail for drinking and drugs. Teens consider this to be okay, and do not let instances like this hinder their idols’ likeability.