Celebrities, good or bad influence for the children of today's day and age?  No one has to read into the fact that our generation is very tech oriented, at  this very moment I am typing this on a computer while texting and watching the superbowl.  With this dependency on technology the average person sees way more news and data about celebrities than they realize.  The influence of celebrities on youth has been a question that has plagued the human race since celebrities first started playing a large role in our society.  The two sides on this question are two drastically different demographics, each having their own strong opinion on the usefulness and intent that celebrities have on today's youth.  The real question is; What is the effect celebrities have today's youth?  Celebrities influence fans to be dangerously thin, abuse harmful substances, and most parents are concerned that the content celebrities produce and take part on in television, in movies, and over the Internet is harming the innocence of our generation.  Popular idols in our society need to at the least, check what they are doing before posting it or talking about it.

In the most recent Newsweek polls over 70% of American adults are concerned that actresses bodies are influencing young girls negatively, causing anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders of that nature.  Now all the blame can not be put on the celebrities themselves because it is the public that causes them to push themselves to the point of unhealthy eating disorders.  Nonetheless, young teens are being reported of hating their body image, starving themselves, looking for “Hollywood diets” and even being diagnosed with depression.  Based on another poll, 40% of nine and ten year-olds had tried losing weight and at age thirteen (Body Image and Gender Identity, 2002), 53% of girls were unhappy with their image (National Institute on Media and the Family).  Fixing this situation is both beneficial for the actors and actresses themselves and the viewers who are pushed by the popularity of skelotoresque women.

If you watch nightly news post some sort of disaster involving a gun and young teen I bet my left testicle that they will blame today's culture, that it be video games, movies, T.V shows and, or art.  It’s slightly embarrassing that people want to shelter their children from the world, telling them things such as that don’t happen; and then being shallow enough to tell the people producing these things that they are bad people.  The audacity people have to tell these artists that they are too vulgar or violent is nonsensical, if you don’t want the kid to see it, don’t show it to them.  So essentially in this situation actors and pop culture in my opinion play no role in the life of a sociopath and his or her garbage parents. 

Then there is drugs, alcohol and tobacco,  it’s obscene how much you see this kind of action taking place in our culture.  The actual statistics on this particular subject is very difficult to find and annotate but from personal experience, I can assure you there are a number of people who abuse substances such as these based on the fact they saw it on television.  They need to fix this problem, the fact that these really successful people who idolized more than our actual government.  The tactic we need to use is fining them, and not a measly two grand, but at least 20% of their earnings, and they should have a three strike system, just like football, if you are caught abusing drugs three times you’re out, no more contracts, no more money. 

It will take a lot of reform to repair the damage that has already been done by the present generation of celebrities but over the next few decades I am certain such reforms can be made.  It may lead to less drama in today’s society, but I think that is exactly what we need now more than ever.  Less focus on celebrities who will never meet you or acknowledge your existence and rather spend your time on the people of the world who need our attention.