The Downside of Idolizing Celebrities

Sofia Angileri

In many situations, we view celebrities as zoo animals. Many view celebrity figures as things that are there for our own personal entertainment instead of real people who are just trying to do what makes them happy for a living.

Maybe envy is the reason people hold resentment or infatuation with celebrities or the fact that not only do celebrities have fame, social standing, and money, but they also have found something that they truly  enjoy. That they spend their days doing something they love rather than being at a mediocre job, with mediocre pay, that they barely tolerate. Ironically, this could also be why many idolize celebrities.

But the problem with idolizing celebrities is that many don’t view them as what they actually are, people. It’s dehumanizing to believe that someone holds such importance due to social standings and media interpretation. If being looked up to and followed was a prize for celebrities, many fewer would choose to be in the public eye. I can assume that it is captivating to be someone’s idol, someone’s muse, a person looked up to, in theory.

But people are just that, human. They have feelings and opinions, and eventually, they make mistakes. They aren’t untouchable in a way similar to something like stars, things that many admire but not many actually care about. At the end of the day, in most situations, no matter who the celebrity is, they are inevitably going to do something someone doesn’t like, that’s the curse of putting someone on a pedestal. The only place they can go from there is down.