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Leea Sills Professor Carpenter English 111 27 November 2012 The Issue of Celebrity Obsession Often, people fail to remember that celebrities are just humans like everyone else. Fans put celebrities on a pedestal, idolizing them perhaps realizing it or not realizing it. If a favored celebrity makes a decision, children all across America may feel the need to make the same decision, regardless if it is morally a good or bad idea.75% of young adults idolize celebrities and consider them role models (Shaw et al. 577). This is an issue due to the heavy amount of influence a celebritys decision may bring to young viewers and that can impact young viewers. For example, research found that listening to explicit music can bring abrasive and harsh actions. Likewise, being consumed with a celebrity and their actions can cause people to alter and change their own behavior to resemble the celebrity more accurately (Shaw et al. 576). Celebrity obsession can cause a young admirer to make negative behavior decisions such as drug abuse or developing an eating disorder. One major influence that celebrities have on teens is drug abuse. Drug abuse alters peoples behavior and attitude in society. People often hear in the social media that celebrities are taking part in drugs and having to go to rehab in order to rid the addiction. Amy Winehouse was a musician who won 5 Grammy Awards and a widely influential individual. Unfortunately, Winehouse also abused drugs; therefore, many charges were levied against her, and she was sentenced to a rehabilitation center to cure her of her addiction. When this scandal went public,

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Amys reputation went from being innocent to society to being a threat to society due to the amount of influence she had over her young admirers (Shaw et al. 576). Similarly, Lindsey Lohan was a widespread sensation until her addiction to drugs also changed her fans behaviors. Teens look up to their favorite celebrities and hope to be just like them, and in doing so, they begin to justify the actions of their idolized celebrity and deem them socially acceptable. Obsession is a negative trait that is a serious concern today. According to Damiaan, obsession is defined as undesirable ideas or actions that are repetitive in a persons daily state of mind. Most people today see obsessions as being a controlled and conscious act; however in reality, it is unwanted and personality altering when a person is obsessing (870). Obsession is a disorder and no matter how miniscule it may seem, it will impact you for the rest of your life. It is physically, emotionally, and socially exhausting to try to break an obsession that a person may have. Celebrity obsession is dangerous and harmful mostly because during their moments of obsession they are not in a right state of mind to make decisions, thus resulting in making the same decisions as the celebrity they obsess over. Young adults find ways to relate to media and act on it through behaviors to feel more connected to society (Shaw et al. 577). Being blinded by the love for a celebrity can become consequential when a person begins to overlook the mistakes and potential threat it can have on him. Drug abuse is a serious problem and hearing about more and more common occurrences of it, cause people to become dormant in their feelings toward it and soon will begin to make it a social norm in their society. Celebrity idolization takes away a peoples ability to make behavioral decisions on their own and also express their own attitude. On the other hand, critics may argue that celebrity obsession can be a good thing because of the amount of endorsements and business that come from being obsessed with a celebrity. Approximately 14%-19% of endorsements come from celebrities. Celebrity endorsements have

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proven to be twice as high in foreign countries due to a social influence. It also heavily used to relate the general public with the celebrities in the media. In celebrity endorsements, athletes are more regularly chosen due to sponsorship that comes with endorsing a celebrity (Elberse et al. 149). For example, Tiger Woods was a celebrity endorsement for multiple companies and made over $147 million from the endorser rather than the company that paid him to golf. This was seven times the amount of his golfing salary. However, when Woods cheated on his wife, his endorsements decreased significantly (Elberse et al. 150). Even though celebrity obsession can bring numerous amounts of money to endorsers, the effect of a negative action from the celebrity can have an effect on the people obsessing too. No matter how idolized a celebrity is there will always be mistakes that the media exposes, because in reality celebrities are regular people like everybody else and make mistakes.Celebrity obsession might seem good to companies endorsing them who are making millions of dollars at the time, yet the celebritys credibility decreases significantly when a negative incident happens. This puts pressure on the celebrity and due to stress it may cause them to have a cloudy judgment when making decisions; therefore affecting the endorser by losing large amounts of money. The well-being of the obsessing individual is more important than any amount of money a company will make that uses celebrity endorsements to make money. Another negative impact of celebrity obsession is body image that is expected of young teens. The media presents beauty as something that is obtainable; yet in reality, its what a person is. Each person whether subconsciously or not, strives to amount to the level of beauty that is defined by media. Celebrity obsession is evident in the way a person may conduct themselves to look more like the individual they are obsessing over. Young teens form negative self-images due to trying look like someone they admire. The pressure of society to be skinny can often lead

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to eating disorders. According to Ata, 45.6% of high school students are currently trying to lose weight in hopes to feel more socially acceptable (1024). When young teens bodies are going through periods of changing, they often turn to media to try to deal with these changes and to figure out how to deal with them. Women are found to turn to magazines more to define themselves and to compare themselves to the standards of the women in magazines. In a recent study it is found that 69% of young women look at models to depict the ideal body a woman is expected to have. However, developing the need to look like the celebrities in magazine can result in having a much higher chance of forming an eating disorder that can develop over time (Ata et al. 1025). Social support is of vital importance to young teens when they are growing up. Peoples obsession with celebrities can cause them severe physical harm to their bodies as well as emotional damage. Among other young teens there is the pressure of maintaining the ideal body weight of society due to teasing that may come from peers. In conclusion, being too celebrity-obsessed can cause a mental block in judgment, creating a harmful environment for the person obsessing and also for the people surrounding them. Obsession is a disorder that is currently being overlooked. Although obsessions may be hard to break, the risks are far greater if continued to develop over time rather than trying to cure them. The issue of celebrity obsession in young teens is such a heavily impacting concept that is passed down through generations without even realizing or acknowledging it. Media and young teens peers have the most influence on them than anything else. It is statically proven that celebrity obsession alters the behavior of a person and also the moral decisions a person may make (Shaw et al. 577). One can only hope that celebrity-obsession is not overlooked in the years to come and that in result young adults may have the privilege of making their own decisions based on their moral standards rather than their favorite celebritys moral standards.

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