Is Celebrity Culture Beneficial or Harmful to Our Society?

What are celebrities? Today, we live in a society that tends to drown our everyday lives in mass Medias such as tabloids, reality shows, newspapers such as the New York Times and personal-interest magazines, like People and Us, to get a glimpse of the interesting lives of everyday celebrities. Some might say that a celebrity is someone who we idolize while Daniel Boorstin, author of the book The Image: Or What Happened to the American Dream, states that a celebrity “is a person who is well-known for his well-knownness” (Epstein1). But the question still remains… what are celebrities? According to Epstein, A celebrity is something or someone who can be talented and full of achievements and yet wish to broadcast ones fame further through the careful cultivation of celebrity, while one can be the total opposite of achievements and be less talented and yet still be made seem otherwise through mechanics and dynamics of celebrity creation (Epstein2). Celebrity culture today is epidemic; some might agree that it is sweeping up America in a harmful way while one might argue that it is beneficial to our society.

Over the last few decades celebrity and fame has changed dramatically, from Alexander the Great to Kim Kardashian. Talent and achievements no longer play a huge role when it comes to our celebrities. “Much modern celebrity seems the result of careful promotion or great good looks or something besides talent and achievement” (Epstein2) with that being said celebrity-creation has blossomed into an industry of its own. Keeping up with all the gossips from breaking up to hooking up, law suits and drama many might come to an agreement that celebrity culture is starting to be the great new art form in our new generation and that it ...

... middle of paper ...

... will all be the outcome of the dying civilization and it would not fit into the fabulous, unrealistic lives we portrayed. People will “react with a fury and vengeance that will snuff out the remains of our anemic democracy and usher in a new dark age” (Hedges3) once homes are lost and our money runs out then it will be too late to do anything.

Works Cited

ource Citation

Gabler, Neal. "Celebrity Culture Is Beneficial." Celebrity Culture. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit:

Greenhaven Press, 2011. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "The Greatest Show on Earth."

Newsweek (12 Dec. 2009). Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 27 Nov. 2013

Hedges, Chris. "Celebrity Culture Is Harmful." Celebrity Culture. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit:

Greenhaven Press, 2011. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Addicted to Nonsense." Truthd ig.com. 2009. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 27 Nov. 2013