As
a man born in nineteen eighty-seven, many could say that I grew up during an
exciting time. As a child I grew up
during the evolution of the computer, the coming of the pager/cellphone, and
the developments of musical/video distribution. I have watched music and
television format transform from cassette, to CD/DVD, all the way into digital
format. As a child of eight I can
remember rolling around on my bedroom floor, shredding my air guitar while
blaring Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” on cassette, completely unaware
of the hidden political messages within.
Later, at the impressionable age of twelve, I would be one of the first
to own the album No Strings Attached
by NSync as described by Chris Anderson in our text (494). Finally, at the age
of fourteen my brother, who was away at college, explained to me over AOL
Instant Messenger how to download music off the internet and play it on our “impressive”
ten gigabyte hard-drive computer. Since
then laws against music sharing have been put into effect, but music sharing
still happens. People still purchase music but much more often in digital
format. However, while I feel I grew to appreciate technology and its
advancements from an intellectual standpoint, the majority of my peers have
become hell bent on using modern technology for keeping up to date on the
tween-twerking tweets of the celebrity world. To say that I am disgusted by
society’s contemporary pop culture obsession would be an understatement. Still,
one must ask the question: Why did we end up here? What changed in humankind
that made so many drop their goals of becoming successful in a work environment
and opt for the subpar achievement of getting drunk on an international reality
show? Why do people live vicariously through celebrities exploits? The answer
isn’t a simple one and not one that can be completely answered in a brief
essay. However, I believe a large part of it has to do with social norms /
conformance, charismatic authority, and technology. We as human beings strive
to feel a sense of belonging and desire to be like people we admire. This has
been true for almost our entire existence.
One could trace celebrity admiration back to our
Neanderthal heritage. Undoubtedly our
species has always had at least a mild obsession with whom we view as alpha
characters within society. The want and
desire for power and respect for leaders has always existed on some sort of
level. Overtime mankind evolved and monarchal hierarchies were put into place
to establish power, and law. Gossip unquestionably came along and reinforced
social connections amongst individuals especially at lower positions within
society. In the text book Sociology A
Brief Introduction Richard T. Schaefer brings to light another form of
authority hypothesized by Max Weber that describes celebrity obsession:
charismatic authority. He explains: “The term charismatic authority refers to
power made legitimate by a leader’s exceptional personal or emotional appeal to
his or her followers” (367). In essence
they garner power through inspiration. Society has had many people throughout
history that have furthered our way of thinking by taking on a charismatic
authoritative role. Without people like
General George Washington, John Adams, Fredrick Douglas, John D. Rockefeller,
Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates
we would not be the society we are today. All of these people are fantastic
examples of authority garnered through charisma. While their intentions may not
all have always been pure, they essentially built America and shaped ideals and
beliefs that we still have today. However, this change happened at a much
slower pace due to their lack of technology.
Messages and beliefs couldn’t reach the masses as quickly as they would
today.
In today’s American society you can find almost anyone’s
thoughts, values, or beliefs in a matter of a few seconds. The entire world is connected via a massive
web of networks we call the internet.
Due to almost everyone’s feelings of self-importance I find that I am
constantly forced to sift through the countless memes and word vomit that
plagues web pages everywhere. It seems as if everyone has an opinion, and they
cannot wait to defecate it on their social networking site. I suppose I cannot be overly harsh on my peers
though since I own a minority outlook on the situation. They are after all adhering to their
preprogrammed social norms. Jeffery S. Nevid describes social norms in his
textbook Psychology Concepts and
Applications. He draws on research conducted by Steven Gaulin and Donald
McBurney that states “Social norms prescribe behavior that are expected of
people in social situations” (533). In
his example he explains, “People are more likely to make a charitable donation
when they are asked to do so by a coworker in full view of others than when
they receive an appeal in the mail in the privacy of their own homes” (533).
Let’s digest this for a moment. Essentially that means you are much more likely
to adhere to social norms when in a room of a handful of your coworkers. Let’s now take that same situation and apply
it to social media, a forum where hundreds, maybe even thousands of your
acquaintances and friends can interact with your thoughts and have influence on
your actions. It’s no wonder millions of
conformists misinform the masses every day with heartfelt fallacies that
instruct their readers to re-share or re-blog their fabricated messages. This
same science applies to interests within pop culture. Going back to my hypothesis on the evolution
of gossip, what better forum to excrete the irrelevant happenings of modern pop
culture celebrities than the internet?
We can now even link directly into the celebrities’ day to day
activities by following them on social networking sites like Facebook and
Twitter. If George Washington were able
to tweet the masses about his victory at Yorktown I am sure he would have. Who
knows, maybe King George would have even responded with a derogatory comment.
Instead we are blessed today with celebrities’ thoughts (many of which, in my
opinion are ignorant) on life, love, fashion, and how to be a “better” person.
We get to see low quality images of their lunch, with a quirky quote about how
they should start serving pizza at church on Sundays instead of some crumby
wafer to increase Christianity beliefs. If they offend someone with their
obtuse web posts it isn’t a big deal since they can apologize immediately with
another web post to their addicted conformist followers. While this may be a
far-fetched example, almost anyone can recall reading about some celebrity that
offers a formal apology for something they have said.
When you link it all together it makes complete sense. It
is because of the culmination of charismatic authority, conforming to social
norms, and the advancements in technology that people follow celebrities with
such vigorous passion. The people of America used to be influenced more so by
their parents, religion, and education. As technology grew it started to corner
a market in the education industry and even the entertainment industry. People
began to use computers for everything from work to play. For some individuals
it became their sole existence. Their new methods for learning the things they
care come from watching television, and listening to music. In turn they become
hooked on the people making the music, and starring in these television
broadcasts. They want to become these people. They want to feel that role of
being an alpha person in society. They watch The Kardashians, and follow people
like Kanye West to deal with their own inadequacies of not becoming a
charismatically authoritative person. To reinforce this behavior they adhere to
social norms. As they see what their friends conform to and believe they too
follow suit. This behavior is a
psychological and sociological format that is the byproduct of thousands of
years of evolution and advancement. Unfortunately I view modern celebrity
obsession to be a regression of society.
I feel it is acceptable to have role models even if your
role model is someone that you have never met, or will ever meet. Role models
give us a starting point. They shape who we want to be and what we want to
become. In some cases, they even grant
us guidance on the career paths we want to take. My issue with society’s obsession with modern
celebrities is moralistic. I think many pop culture celebrities reinforce
nonproductive behavior and encourage our youth to fall in love with a sublevel
standard of living. Being unprofessional or unproductive is “cool” or “comedic”
and breaking laws is a romantic way to live in many of their messages. People can point out that their personal
celebrity icons represent what they believe.
However, I can recall a personal account in which I watched a celebrity
debate on a political issue on their reality show. Instead of offering up
factual or personal evidence to back their beliefs they just continued to
hackle their opponent on their level of intellect by saying something along the
lines of “Oh my gawd, you’re just so stupid” over and over again. In my opinion this celebrity did not know
anything at all about the political issue at stake, but rather felt they should
use their status as a celebrity to their advantage. How on earth could their
opponent ever be in the right on this issue when they have no charismatic
authority? When people use their “holier
than thou” celebrity status as a means for argument they abuse their
charismatic authority in the same way a tyrant would. The time has come for us as humans to
formulate our own opinions and ideas. If not, I believe America will fall
behind as a society.
In conclusion I think it is important for us all to
remember what matters in life. It is
important for us to focus on our similarities and how we have developed
overtime. However, it is also important for us to continue to progress our way
of thinking. I am not saying that the tweens of today that idolize their pop
culture icons cannot one day solve our nation’s problems. I am saying however, that they will have to
develop a new way of thinking, and one that goes beyond a desire to attain
international social status. They need to not be afraid of being an individual,
and abandon their pop culture conformance way of thinking. I think our
thirty-fifth president said it best when he made the statement “Conformity is
the jailer of freedom, and the enemy of growth.” Be proud of who you are and
what you can do. “Because “Today you are you! That’s truer than true! There is
no one alive that’s you-er than you! –Theodor Geisel
Works
Cited
.
Anderson, Chris. “The
Rise and Fall of the Hit.” The Bedford
Reader. Ed. X. J. Kennedy, Dorothy M.
Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron. 11th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2012. 494.
Print.
Nevid, Jeffery S. Psychology Concepts and Applications. Belmont:
Wadsworth, 2013. 533. Print.
Schaefer, Richard T. Sociology a Brief Introduction. 9th
ed. New York: Mcgraw-Hill, 2011. 367.
Print.
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