Celebrities have a large impact on today’s society. Seen on
magazine covers, television, and the Internet, celebrities are prized all over
the world. But why is our culture so invested in the lives of these stars? Why
does our society care about what shoes Beyoncé wore while shopping rather than focusing
solely on her music? Why do people love seeing candid pictures of celebrities,
such as this image portraying actress Jennifer Garner and her children? Society
cannot seem to get enough of pictures of unsuspecting celebrities taken
by paparazzi.
The interest many people have in the personal lives of
celebrities may be due to evolution, according to social anthropologist Jamie
Tehrani. Tehrani argues that humans differentiate social status in terms of
prestige, which evolved as part of a package of psychological adaptations for
cultural learning. This cultural learning allowed our human ancestors to
recognize individuals with superior skills and knowledge, and reward them and
learn from them. With this system of prestige, new techniques were discovered,
such as optimizing the design of hunting weapons to spread across the whole
population and improve the knowledge of their predecessors. By attaching
prestige to these people, the group’s chances of survival were boosted.
In modern culture, prestige is usually associated with
recognition. That is, those who are given the most media attention are the most
prestigious. And since athletes, musicians, and actors tend to receive the most
recognition, it makes sense in terms of Tehrani’s argument that the general
public would try to emulate these celebrities’ lives. Even though many
celebrities are famous for sports, music, or acting, “which most of us have
little hope of emulating…we still imitate what we can because our brains are
programmed to associate prestige with adaptive behavior.” So even though
Jennifer Garner may be famous for being an actress and not a mother, people
love seeing her, along with many other celebrities, performing everyday tasks
in order to emulate her behavior and learn from her mistakes.
Works Cited
AKM Images. Jennifer Garner’s Sweet Samuel. 2013. Photograph. Unknown, n.p.
Tehrani, Jamie. "Viewpoint: Did Our Brains Evolve to Foolishly Follow Celebrities?"BBC News. British Broadcasting Corporation, 25 June 2013. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.
Micaela,
ReplyDeleteI thought your post was very strong and well written. You write with a sense that you know exactly what you're talking about, and that makes your post enjoyable to read. You know exactly what you are talking about in this paper and where it is heading. I believe this post can be used in your paper. I really liked how you started off this post with several rhetorical questions. As i read, I asked myself these questions and could definitely relate to them. I'm not sure if this will be a random page in your paper or if it is the introduction, but I think it would be a great way to start off your paper as a whole. Rereading through it again, it is hard to find much wrong with your post.The only thing I might suggest is to look back at the second and third paragraphs. From the point of view of someone who has not read your sources, the part about celebrities and recognition being their "prestige" was a bit confusing. But overall i think this post is really great. This is research paper worthy as it is. Great job!
-Julia S
Micaela, I agree with Julia. I like it. I'm not sure how this image will fit into your paper, but I trust you will do a good job. You might consider clarifying this sentence: "With this system of prestige, new techniques were discovered, such as optimizing the design of hunting weapons to spread across the whole population and improve the knowledge of their predecessors." I struggled to understand exactly what it meant, even after reading it four times. Perhaps if you wrote in the active voice, I would get it easier.
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