Are celebrities bad for you?
What's wrong with enjoying a bit of celebrity gossip? It doesn't do us any harm ... or does it? Read the article to find out if celebrities really are bad for you.
Are celebrities bad for you?
Celebrities are everywhere nowadays: on TV, in magazines, online. Is this preoccupation with famous people harmless fun or is it bad for us? How many people are truly obsessed with modern media idols? And on the other side of the coin, can fame be harmful to the celebrities?
Studies suggest that the vast majority of teenagers do not really worship celebrities. Researchers have identified three kinds of fans. About 15% of young people have an ‘entertainment-social’ interest. They love chatting about their favourite celebrities with friends and this does not appear to do any harm.
Another 5% feel that they have an ‘intense-personal’ relationship with a celebrity. Sometimes they see them as their soulmate and find that they are often thinking about them, even when they don’t want to. These people are more at risk from depression and anxiety. If girls in this group idolise a female star with a body they consider to be perfect, they are more likely to be unhappy with their own bodies.
That leaves 2% of young people with a ‘borderline-pathological’ interest. They might say, for example, they would spend several thousand pounds on a paper plate the celebrity had used, or that they would do something illegal if the celebrity asked them to. These people are in most danger of being seriously disturbed.
What about the celebrities themselves? A study in the USA tried to measure narcissism or extreme self-centredness, when feelings of worthlessness and invisibility are compensated for by turning into the opposite: excessive showing off. Researchers looked at 200 celebrities, 200 young adults with Masters in Business Administration (a group known for being narcissistic) and a nationally representative sample using the same questionnaire. As was expected, the celebrities were significantly more narcissistic than the MBAs and both groups were a lot more narcissistic than the general population.
Four kinds of celebrity were included in the sample. The most narcissistic were the ones who had become famous through reality TV shows – they scored highest on vanity and willingness to exploit other people. Next came comedians, who scored highest on exhibitionism and feelings of superiority. Then came actors, and the least narcissistic were musicians. One interesting result was that there was no connection between narcissism and the length of time the celebrity had been famous. This means that becoming famous probably did not make the celebrities narcissistic – they already were beforehand.
So, what can we learn from this? People who are very successful or famous tend to be narcissists and are liable to be ruthless, self-seeking workaholics. As we can see from celebrity magazines, they are also often desperate and lonely. They make disastrous role models.
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Discussion
Do you agree that celebrities make disastrous role models? Which celebrities do you think are good role models?
Your digital footprint
Your digital footprint
Every time you go online you leave a trail. This is just like a real footprint. It reveals where you’ve been, how long you stayed and what you’ve been doing there. Every time you register for an online service, send an email, download a video or upload a photo, the information can be accessed and your digital footprint can be revealed. This shouldn’t necessarily be worrying but it is advisable to be aware of your digital footprint and to be cautious and sensible when you are online.
Six top tips for taking care of your digital footprint
- Don’t forget to log off when you leave a website, especially if you are using a shared computer. If you don’t, someone can easily pretend to be you!
- Don’t tell anyone your passwords and don’t write them down in an obvious place. Make them more complex by using a combination of letters, numbers and punctuation marks.
- Tell an adult if you come across anything online that makes you upset, anxious or concerned. There are ways to report inappropriate or abusive content and in most cases web managers respond rapidly.
- Remember your favourite websites by using the history button and the bookmark function on your computer or mobile device. This is a way that your digital footprint can work in your favour, but remember to clear your browser history regularly.
- If you want to post comments online, you don’t have to use your own name. Invent a nickname to use instead. You can also use a picture instead of a real photo.
- Protect your identity online. Be careful about who you share personal information with and always think twice before sharing details like your email, home address, school or phone number with someone.
Think about the future
All kinds of people are interested in your digital footprint. It's now quite common for colleges, universities and employers to check out the online profiles of possible candidates as part of their application process. There are cases of people having missed out on jobs and places in college because their digital footprint didn’t impress the recruiters. So, remember: keep safe, don’t put too much personal information online and always think carefully before you post something. Ask yourself, ‘Would I be happy for absolutely everyone to see this?’
Discussion
How do you take care of your digital footprint?
The history of graffiti
The history of graffiti
The first drawings on walls appeared in caves thousands of years ago. Later the Ancient Romans and Greeks wrote their names and protest poems on buildings. Modern graffiti seems to have appeared in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, and by the late sixties it had reached New York. The new art form really took off in the 1970s, when people began writing their names, or ‘tags’, on buildings all over the city. In the mid seventies it was sometimes hard to see out of a subway car window, because the trains were completely covered in spray paintings known as ‘masterpieces’.
In the early days, the ‘taggers’ were part of street gangs who were concerned with marking their territory. They worked in groups called ‘crews’, and called what they did ‘writing’ – the term ‘graffiti’ was first used by The New York Times and the novelist Norman Mailer. Art galleries in New York began buying graffiti in the early seventies. But at the same time that it began to be regarded as an art form, John Lindsay, the then mayor of New York, declared the first war on graffiti. By the 1980s it became much harder to write on subway trains without being caught, and instead many of the more established graffiti artists began using roofs of buildings or canvases.
The debate over whether graffiti is art or vandalism is still going on. Peter Vallone, a New York city councillor, thinks that graffiti done with permission can be art, but if it is on someone else’s property it becomes a crime. ‘I have a message for the graffiti vandals out there,’ he said recently. ‘Your freedom of expression ends where my property begins.’ On the other hand, Felix, a member of the Berlin-based group Reclaim Your City, says that artists are reclaiming cities for the public from advertisers, and that graffiti represents freedom and makes cities more vibrant.
For decades graffiti has been a springboard to international fame for a few. Jean-Michel Basquiat began spraying on the street in the 1970s before becoming a respected artist in the ’80s. The Frenchman Blek le Rat and the British artist Banksy have achieved international fame by producing complex works with stencils, often making political or humorous points. Works by Banksy have been sold for over £100,000. Graffiti is now sometimes big business.
Check your understanding: matching
Discussion
What do you think about graffiti? Is it art or vandalism?
Study problems – help is here
Study problems – help is here
Ask E-tutor
Hi! I’m E-tutor, or Emma. I’m here to help with any study-related problems, whether big or small.
Post a message on the forum below.
Meg
What should I say to my sister?
Hi, E-tutor. Unfortunately, I share a bedroom and a desk with my elder sister. She continually distracts me because she's noisy and disorganised. I think she's disrespectful. I’ve got exams in a fortnight and I desperately need to revise. I can’t concentrate when she’s studying too and the desk is always overflowing with stuff so I can’t find anything. If I try to have a dialogue with my sister, she gets annoyed. Can you help?
E-tutor
Re: What should I say to my sister?
Hi, Meg. That’s a common complaint between siblings. Why don’t you discuss a rota system so that you use the desk at different times? Or maybe you could study at the local library, cultural centre or community centre a few days a week. Make sure you’ve got storage space for everything on your desk: folders and containers for your paper and stationery. If everything has its own place, it will be easier to keep orderly. It might even be enjoyable to do this together. If it’s easier to write instead of talking face to face, try messaging her and explain how awful you feel.
Rudy
Against the clock
My problem is time – or lack of it! Next month I’ve got 12 exams in three weeks. How can I possibly study for all of them? It’s complicated. I think it's impossible.
E-tutor
Re: Against the clock
Hi, Rudy. It isn’t impossible but you DO have to get started NOW. Make a study plan and highlight periods of study time for each subject. Make a detailed plan for this week and then do the same for the weeks ahead. It’s better to study for an hour or so a day than just once a week, all day. Your brain needs time to process information.
Hayley
Disaster
My problem is silly and a bit embarrassing. I just find it hard to study. I always stop and start and I keep getting the impression that I’m learning the wrong things. I’m a disaster. I don’t think you can really help me.
E-tutor
Re: Disaster
Hayley, your problem isn’t silly at all! It's very real and lots of people experience the same thing as you. Sometimes things improve if they join a study group. Set up a group and meet a couple of days a week after school to study together. Take turns to give presentations and teach other what you know. It's called 'peer teaching' and is an effective and efficient practice for lots of students.
Check your understanding: grouping Who is it about? Put the sentences in the correct group.
Discussion
Have you got any study problems or tips to share?
Leaving home
Leaving home
Going away to university is always a tricky time, both for the students who are leaving home and their parents who are staying behind. We got advice on how to cope from a student daughter and her dad.
A daughter’s advice to parents, by Kerry Price
My parents drove me to uni at the beginning of the first term. That was great, but then they hung around, so it was hard to chat to the people in the rooms near mine. It’s best if you leave us to unpack ourselves.
Don’t ask us to come home during term time. There’s a lot going on at weekends, there just isn’t time.
Get another interest or a pet if you feel lonely without us. Don’t make us feel guilty about leaving home!
It is quite interesting to hear about your experiences at uni, but remember that it was a LONG time ago so don’t go on about it so much. Things have changed a lot. Now we have a lot more debt and it’ll be harder to find a job in the future.
Please don’t check up on us or our friends on Facebook. I know it’s a public site, but we have the right to some privacy.
Don’t change anything in our bedrooms. We have only half left home - we’ll be back in the holidays, so please don’t touch anything.
We’d still like to come on family holidays with you. Don’t forget to include us just because we’re not there all the time.
A father’s advice to students, by Stuart Price
Don’t complain so much about how much work you have to do. We work a lot too. You’re an adult now, get used to it.
Put up with the fact that we refused to get a dog while you were at home, then suddenly bought one as soon as you moved out. We miss you!
Just because you’re at university studying very complex subjects, it doesn’t mean that you’re more intelligent than everybody else. Don’t treat your family as if they were stupid; we’re really not.
Let us come and visit you now and again. We promise to try not to embarrass you in front of your friends. We just want to see you for a short time and take you out for a meal.
Don’t waste so much time on Facebook. You need time for all that work you have to do, remember?
We might make a few changes to your room, so deal with it. It’s great to have a guest room at last, but we won’t change things too much, promise.
Don’t forget to call home from time to time and don’t get annoyed if we phone you. It’s not pestering. If we didn’t call, you wouldn’t know that we care.
Check your understanding: multiple choice
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