Monday, April 28, 2014

Blog Post: Due May 2nd-Period 2

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/opinion/inequality-and-the-modern-culture-of-celebrity.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=0

Consider the author's tone, structure of the article, validity of evidence, persuasive techniques, and your personal reaction.
2. Please add an intelligent comment (minimum 5 sentences) in response to the linked articles from The New York Times.  Be sure to use a minimum of one quote in your response.
3. Optional: Comment on a classmates post in a second post (minimum 3 sentences)
*Use only your first name, last initial and class period.

13 comments:

  1. Society is set up to look up towards celebrities as superior people. They are given so much attention and time that we overlook the fact that they are normal people. Being a celebrity in America you are an icon/role model to people especially teenagers, who look at celebrities as someone they want to replicate. "The celebrity monuments of our age have grown so huge that they dwarf the aspirations of ordinary people, who are asked to yield their dreams to the gods: to flash their favorite singer’s corporate logo at concerts, to pour open their lives (and data) on Facebook, to adopt Apple as a lifestyle. We know our stars aren’t inviting us to think we can be just like them. Their success is based on leaving the rest of us behind. " We epitomize the celebrity to be someone who does no wrong, but they are often those who make the poorest decisions. Our culture has learned to recognize celebrities as the best and there is no changing that.

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  2. This article, in my opinion was very one sided. And a little critical of celebrities. Like it was their fault that people idolized them so much. But maybe the problem isn't with the celebrities taking adavantage of their fame and branching out into businesses and corporation, maybe it's the fact that we keep buying into it and supporting them. Whether you believe it's true or not, America is run by the consumer. It really is. Maybe not initially but eventually. It was one publicists idea to market their celebrity in a new way and the consumer fell for it and that's how celebrities found out they can do what they can do. But a lot of celebrities, especially the younger ones. The article says "These new celebrities are all more or less start-up entrepreneurs, and they live by the hacker’s code: ask forgiveness, not permission. " and this can be applied to a lot of people in the spot light today. Other than the three the article mentioned, Justin Bieber is a prime example, and he doesn't even need to beg for forgiveness. His fans would support him no matter what. His fans defended and cheered him for driving drunk and endangering his, his passengers', and everyone else on the roads life. But is it Justin Bieber's fault that his fans would die for him because of his good looks and heavenly voice? Or is he simply giving the consumer what they want? More songs and flashy smiles(like his mug shot) But this article did make me question the idea of "celebrities" Since the concept has been taught to me since I was born, I never really gave it much thought. But when you really think about it, it's a strange behavior. To idolize another human being because they're talented in a certain area is a little obsessive. I feel like it's more normal to respect people for their talents, not attack them over it

    MaryColleen W
    Per 2

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  3. This article brought up a very issue/situation in the current world. The income gap is getting wider and wider; this is slowly but surely separating us from large names like Bill Gates and Donald Trump. While this is bad for maybe self-esteem or hope for being a billionaire, these people produce great work for society. Bill Gates has donated 10's of billions of dollars to various causes and organisations; he has also made his own organisations such as the Gate's Foundation, "Instead of investments in public health, we have the Gates Foundation." The Gate's Foundation helps millions of people and seems to be painted in a negative light by this article. Celebrities aren't "normal" people to you or me; however, they give much back to the community. This inequality encourages normal people to strive to be a "celebrity" and gives people something to aspire to.

    Jared Carlson
    Period 2

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  4. Caroline M.
    Period 2
    Why do we obsess about celebrities? We call them idols. It is not just that we enjoy their work. We want to know all the details about their personal life, and the more personal we know, the better. There is a huge industry that sells us the dirt on celebrities. People Magazine has a weekly audience of 4.6 million readers and has the largest audience of any American magazine. That is a lot of gossip, but more frightening, that is a lot of people spending their time and money reading about people they don’t even know. There are also plenty of TV shows running in prime time that are exclusively about celebrities. And there are people becoming rich and are now celebrities themselves by blogging about the stars,(Perez Hilton). Celebrity worship is becoming such a problem psychologists even have a name for it, Celebrity Worship Syndrome. We give them this God like stature? We put them so high on a pedestal that if they fall, they fall very hard and in the spotlight..We almost seem to take pleasure in their misfortune or mistake. We have an almost moral superiority even though we still can’t help but gawk at every detail of their fall. We act as if they have let us down personally, as if they somehow owed it to us to remain perfect. They owe us nothing. They are business people, and that is all."The celebrity monuments of our age have grown so huge that they dwarf the aspirations of ordinary people, who are asked to yield their dreams to the gods: to flash their favorite singer’s corporate logo at concerts, to pour open their lives (and data) on Facebook, to adopt Apple as a lifestyle." The celebrities today dint choose the famous life we the views created the celebrity life for them. In other words we created the fame monsters.

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  5. Alla Miller
    Period 2
    I do not understand why we obsess over celebrities. What even makes a celebrity a celebrity? They can be found anywhere. "Our age is lousy with celebrities. They can be found in every sector of society, including ones that seem less than glamorous. We have celebrity bankers (Jamie Dimon), computer engineers (Sergey Brin), real estate developers/conspiracy theorists (Donald J. Trump), media executives (Arianna Huffington), journalists (Anderson Cooper), mayors (Cory A. Booker), economists (Jeffrey D. Sachs), biologists (J. Craig Venter) and chefs (Mario Batali)." Celebrites now-a-days aren't just pop stars or movie actors they can be bankers to biologists. But I sort of understand why we do it. Celebrities are people we can look up to and want to be like. We idolize them. So in a way we have created all of this because we obsess over them so much. We are the paparazzi that takes pictures of what they are doing. If we weren't going to look at the pictures they wouldn't be taken.

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  6. “The celebrity monuments of our age have grown so huge that they dwarf the aspirations of ordinary people.” I found this article to be very interesting. It discusses how we have gone back to the Gatsby’s time, meaning that celebrities are only becoming famous for their advantage and aren't thinking about the rest of us. I feel that the article did a good job explaining how fame changes an ordinary person’s identity. For example George Packer feels that, “The person involves into a persona, then a brand, then an empire, with the business imperative of grow or die- a process of expansion and commodification that transgresses boundaries by substituting celebrity for institutions.” I agree with the author of this article to an extent. I feel that celebrities do change based on fame, however not all of them have bad intentions. A lot of them are good role models and we should be able to look up to them. However not all are as good as they appear to be. As mentioned in the article, a lot of times we brush off crimes or things celebrities have done and still seem to look up to them.
    Holly P
    period 2

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  7. Though this article is quite cynical, there is much truth to it. Celebrities have become not only idols in American society, but also internationally. In this quote form the article, Packer touches upon the nation's loss of faith by stating, "Fitzgerald intuited that, with the old restraining deities of the 19th century dead and his generation’s faith in man shaken by World War I, celebrities were the new household gods." In the absence of faith, it is easy for people to romanticize superficiality and idolize the idea of celebrity. Whereas the spirit of the Gilded Age was to embrace rugged individualism whilst accumulating wealth to fill a void left from the first World War, the spirit of our current age seems to be shifting into a similar state as a response to its new found bombardment of knowledge that is offered by the internet with little initiative to do anything with it. This has challenged the way in which the education system is being taught to an increasingly restless youth. Unlike the generation of the Gilded Age, the generation is well aware of the global community and all the evils it may present; however there is great indifference to it. Not to mention, this idea of celebrity has distorted society's vision of a model citizen. For instance, the rap music industry is dominated by materialists who are idolized by the youth. As mentioned in the article, music icon Jay Z bragged about dealing crack-cocaine early in his career as a means of furthering his wealth and building his reputation in his industry. Its almost as if one could consider him a modern Jay Gatsby. But what the youth seem to miss entirely is that the way of the materialist is extremely exclusive and is neither valuable nor progressive for society as a whole. It is not sustainable and often delusional.

    Dan L
    Period 2

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  8. Celebrities today, as clearly shown in the article, are more than just people. In the eyes of society, and even more so in their own eyes, they are super-beings above the rest of us that do not live the same life we do. Many believe that they do not have to follow the same rules as regular citizens, and that overall they are just superior. Obviously, however, this is not the case. Celebrities are humans just like the rest of us, no matter the hype around them. In The Great Gatsby (sorry, I couldn't figure out how to underline that) Fitzgerald warns of the dangers of putting people on this pedestal and making them truly believe they're all powerful. George Packer, the author of the article, also expresses his concern in the matter. Packer writes, " ...in times of widespread opportunity, the distance between gods and mortals closes, the monuments shrink closer to human size and the centrality of celebrities in the culture recedes." He is stressing the fact that we must change how high we think of celebrities and that we must rationalize our thoughts on these mere humans. A perfect example of this is Justin Bieber. As I'm sure most of us have heard, Bieber was recently arrested for drag racing, not to mention the fact that he was probably under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. Normally, a regular person would be charged with reckless endangerment, reckless driving, etc., but because it was teen heart throb Justin Bieber, there was an outcry (mostly from adolescent girls) that Bieber should not be charged and let go. What if under the influence of these substances and driving at such high speeds, he had hit a child, or anyone for that matter, and killed him or her? What if that person was related to you? What if that person was you? Would you, or society really, have thought twice about charging Bieber? Would you still want Bieber to be let off the hook just this once because, "OMG its j-biebs, he just made a mistake!"? Celebrities are not what they think they are, and this image needs to be changed.

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  9. Many people love to know pretty much everything about their "inspiration" usually a celebrity. Celebrities are people that are well known throughout the world or country and usually they take this to their own advantage. They know how much people love them and how much people want to be them. this has been going on for a long time. In the article it says, "generation’s faith in man shaken by World War I, celebrities were the new household gods." People used celebrities and their personal lives to stop thinking about the war or just as something on the side to do. If there is a celebrity that is just going down hill really fast, like Miley Cyrus, everyone knows about it within seconds. Being so well known changes you. She probably felt like she was not noticed as much so she wanted to change, or she felt like everyone was going to think of her as hannah montana so she changed the way people saw her. Celebrities think of themselves too highly and this in not good.
    Chaylea FInn p2

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  10. This article contained many intriguing opinions. However, it was disgustingly bias and made me quite wary of trusting the writer. Celebrities are the gods of modern society. They represent the gorgeous unattainable. In short, they are a diverse species of glamour. "Their superficial diversity dangles before us the myth that in America, anything is possible ― even as the American dream quietly dies, a victim of the calcification of a class system that is nearly hereditary." In past years, celebrities were inspirational figures. They embodied the public's greatest dream of beauty, fame, and success. They were living confirmation of the "American Dream." In our time, we see these dreams becoming increasingly unrealistic and maddeningly ridiculous. Celebrities have lost much of their inspiring qualities. They have been reduced to likeness of circus animals. No longer are they seen as human. Society has transformed them into shiny pieces of metal that spend their lives polishing themselves so that they will remain to be admired by all. Their actions are regarded as miracles. Their very presence is accepted as a blessing. One would think that they had surpassed humanity and joined the rankings of the deities.... Nope. Celebrities are just hyped up people who are over glorified by the public. Whether they are something more or something less really depends on who they are as individuals.
    Iana West.
    Period 2

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  11. Celebrities, in this era, are treated as if they are gods. Which draws a direct parallel to the 192-'s where it marked the beginning of entertainment and celebrities. This article made some interesting points. It discusses about how fame can change someone to the point where they aren't recognizable, The articles states, “The person involves into a persona, then a brand, then an empire, with the business imperative of grow or die- a process of expansion and commodification that transgresses boundaries by substituting celebrity for institutions.” Although it is true that fame can alter a person, some people stay true to themselves and try and share their story with the world. For example, Jay-Z, one of the worlds most famous rappers, used to be a crack dealer. He uses his past in his song for a powerful lyrics and I believe his humble beginnings also help him stay true to himself. Overall, this article does a great job on creating a parallel between the 1920's and now and portraying the importance of having celebrities in modern society.

    Joe R
    Period 2

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  12. Jake S.
    Period 2
    The article clearly shows how celebrities are now seen as "super humans" as opposed to the 1920s when celebrities were seen as normal people (more or less) with a special talent that made them popular. Many celebrities today believe that they are above the law and can get away with anything because they are celebrities. These airheads are evolving into a person that they themselves can't recognize. In the article it states, "The person involves into a persona, then a brand, then an empire, with the business imperative of grow or die- a process of expansion and commodification that transgresses boundaries by substituting celebrity for institutions." Although it is true that some people stay true to themselves, the majority of celebrities change for the worse such as Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan who have struggled with drug addiction. On the whole, this article does a good job at comparing the 1920's and today and showing the importance of celebrities in society.

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  13. It is intriging how regliously people devote themselves to following celebrities. People buy overpriced merchandise, concert tickets, backstage passes, etc. However, the celebrities of toda are no longer just entertainers; "Our age is lousy with celebrities. They can be found in every sector of society, including ones that seem less than glamorous. We have celebrity bankers (Jamie Dimon), computer engineers (Sergey Brin), real estate developers/conspiracy theorists (Donald J. Trump), media executives (Arianna Huffington), journalists (Anderson Cooper), mayors (Cory A. Booker), economists (Jeffrey D. Sachs), biologists (J. Craig Venter) and chefs (Mario Batali)." I am still undecided about whether the idolation of these people and others is good or bad. Celebrities give a lot to society, whether it be to chartiable donations (J. K. Rowling) or in contributions to society (Steve Jobs). In the modern age, everyone is a celebrity. We have them at the local level (someone like Greg Nobile in Branford). I think it is just depends on what the celebrities to with their fame. Yes, many donate or support good causes, but many more also get tangled up in drugs, money, and fame (Lindsay Lohan). I think this is whether to draw the line with celebrities. If you are a role model to the public, especially young people, you must be very cautious with your actions. Justin Bieber, whose fan base is mostly comprised of young girls, is a perfect example of this mistreated responsibility to their fans, who are blinded by their devoation that they can't see the horrible choices they are making.

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