Fake Celebrities, Fake Fans
- Jethro Wong
- Jan 8, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 16, 2019
Throughout the last century, technology has been rapidly increasing, but before all of the modern technology, people did not know or care about what was going around the world. Social media was one of those technologies meant for us to communicate through. In terms of news, social media gave people access to information that would have never been possible without it; it was healthy for people. Another side to social media are the celebrities and their large fanbases. Sure, fanbases can be good, but like anything else it depends on how they are used. They can give rise to people that work hard for their success, but they can also negatively influence a fanbase. When celebrities choose to portray something that is unrealistic or fake (not just physically), the fanbase will copy that approach and reflect it in their own lives. More than just being a hobby, it has become an obsession and sometimes even an essential in the fan's life.
In Araby by James Joyce, the narrator is obsessed with a girl - it is what he perceives as "good" in his day to day life. When he realizes that he can do something that might impress her, he spends his night out (and money for a train ride) to a supposedly magnificent bazaar. But, when he gets there, he realizes that what he has been chasing after has no value and that he is no longer a child. He realizes that there is no substance in how he has been living his life.
Almost all of the first world has conformed to rely on media. People rely on social media for communication, news, trends, and more. That can be good when used properly, but when people start putting their self-worth behind a fake celebrity that they follow, it becomes very dangerous for the mental and maybe even physical health of that person. Just like how the narrator put his self-worth in his infatuation with his crush, social media can have the same effect when we start putting our self-worth in these things. It takes away from genuine happiness that people could have and replaces it with a facade of perfection. If you are one of these people, maybe you need the same wake-up call that the narrator from Araby had.
Learn more about the influence of social media:
https://www.socialmagnets.net/how-social-media-influences-people/
https://www.simplilearn.com/real-impact-social-media-article
I think social media definitely has its pros and cons, and when people created social media was to bring people closer instead of further away. The negative influence that social media has right now, causes a lot of insecurities within a lot of users and the need to be perfect. Social media is also another way of how people want to present themselves to others, by constantly wanting to be perfect like the celebrities we see in social media makes every small detail amplified making the problem worse. Again I totally agree with you that social media creates both positive and negative influence, but it is just that the negative influence seems to impact a lot more people, which puts…
Social media definitely has its downs; to me it feels fake, like we're all just hiding behind a mask (much like the image you included). When speaking specifically about fanbases and popular people, the toxicity that comes out of social media increases exponentially. When you're popular you need to watch everything you say and do or you might end up under a mountain of hateful comments. Famous people, specially YouTubers and artists, I find, have been known to gain a lot of disapproval from the world for standing up for something, having a different point of view, or for no reason at all (recently my favourite band has received a lot of hate because the lead singer was sick and…
Social media definitely has its negative impacts on individuals and society as a whole. Despite that, I think it would be very difficult to implement a system that allow both freedom of speech and control of content. It is up to the users to process what information is credible and valuable to them. Users should mentally filter out things that portray unrealistic standards. It is important for fans to recognize that most internet personalities put on a "mask" to entertain the audience. We need to distinguish between entertainers that are open to their fans and ones that do things for fame and revenue. If these obstacles are overcome, I think everyone can benefit form the huge network that is social…
Very interesting post! I agree that social media has it's negatives. These social media influencers can have a strong effect on the people watching them and their actions or thoughts. Celebrities and other popular people with a strong social media accounts can lead to negative effects on all the viewers from influencing them to do things that are dumb or even dangerous. We often have people with strong media followings participating in viral "challenges" that get people to do a certain task and post it on to social media. These "challenges" can be fun to incredibly dangerous. This can influence anybody to do the challenge or else the will be "left out of the fun". In the end, people nee…