The Celebrity Effect on Social Media

  • Xiaomeng
    University: 北京邮电大学
    Nationality: 中国
    July 22, 2019 at 12:54 am

    IELTS Writing Topic: Nowadays, with the development of social media, celebrities exert more influence around the world. Please write an essay on the topic of “celebrity effect”. 

    Over a decade ago when mobile network was not so ubiquitous as it is today, celebrity effect mainly means famous figures showing up in television advertisements with a smile or a happy face holding a product. Now, the effect seems intensified through widely-spread mobile devices with an internet access and popular social media platforms.

    Weibo is one of the most visited social media platforms in China. It has a giant number of users among which nearly every age group is included. On the platform every user can generate his own messages and get followers. The most followed are celebrities from every circle in the society. For example, TF boys is the name of an entertainment group of three young boys at their early 20s. Each of them has an account on Weibo and has tens of millions of followers and their every post can get up to hundreds of thousands reposts, likes and comments. Xie Na, a famous reality show hostess, is even followed by over a hundred million people. The celebrity effect is multiplied based on the giant follower group.

    There is huge potential economic benefits behind the huge traffic. Advertisers would pay for a much followed account to increase the exposure of their new products or sales activities. Jackson Yee, one of members of the TF boys, is HUWEI’s spokesman for one model of its smart phone line. Through Yee’s post with a fine picture about him holding a HUAWEI phone, news of launch of new handset models can reach a vast group of consumers in minutes.  Because of the account owner’s credibility and popularity, the high exposure can get easily translated into real earnings.

    Due to the same reason, a social event or a charity donation post on such accounts can always draw much attention from the public very fast, which helps speeding the progress of social equity. Annie Yi, an entertainer from Taiwan once post a middle-aged man crippled by polio feeding his wife and baby by selling hand-made straw plaited toys. Many were impressed by his toughness and sympathetic to the hardship his family confronted, so they managed to give their help in different ways. Except for money and baby clothes donation, they even got the daddy a new wheelchair and a computer for him to run a online toy store. That is an example of good deeds done by celebrity effect.

    Celebrity influence can also make a mess. The public seems never lose interest in any kind of news about these celebrities. There are several times when the background system of Weibo got paralyzed because of a great number of simultaneous clicks on hot topics like a famous couple getting married, giving birth to babies or getting divorced.

    The celebrity effect is actually magnified by social media. As online world is open to every one no matter the intellectual or wealth level which is usually a block to communication in the real world, an ordinary individual can express his attitudes towards posts of celebrities and further be agreed or rebuked by lots of other users. What this delivers to the whole society really matters. Celebrities should advocate good values and guide public opinion correctly. For us, we should learn to make a clear distinction between right and wrong and we need to be cautious not to be taken advantaged over by some with evil intentions on the internet. Celebrity effect maybe exerted by those popular figures in public, but it is we, numerous average users behind the screen that decide what the effect really yields.

    July 23, 2019 at 9:20 pm

    Hi, I didn’t find this essay topic online, so please give me the exact IELTS topic. Besides, I will not work on an essay that is not based on an actual TOEFL/IELTS/GRE topic.

     

    Thank you!

    Xiaomeng
    University: 北京邮电大学
    Nationality: 中国
    July 24, 2019 at 12:42 am

    okay, got it~