The Danger of Celebrity Influence on My Fellow Teens

In 2019, I wrote a cover story for the Jewish Journal about the effects of social media on teens. The article discussed how social media often affects our self-esteem because it creates feelings of exclusion or a fear of missing out (fomo!). Acknowledging that it is difficult to simply disconnect, and understanding that a lot of what is put on social media is just for show, I resolved to balance the best of social media with actual real-world engagement.

These days, when I’m with friends or family, I ask everyone to put their phones in a pile so we can all have real conversation. In fact, although I do succumb to watching TikTok videos when I’m bored, I have become the least obsessed phone-user in my family. 

While reducing my screen time was a big step for me, I am realizing now that the feelings of isolation and exclusion that can result from social media are only part of the problem. A far bigger issue is the prominent role social media plays in disseminating disinformation and misinformation.

Disinformation, of course, is planting false information online. With little or no barriers to entry, anyone can post anything. Sometimes the sources of disinformation make it appear as though they are legitimate news sources, which increases the likelihood of people reading and disseminating it. When readers, not knowing the information is false, repost and share, misinformation spreads. Online “friends” and followers often spread it further. This is especially true when the misinformation aligns with someone’s predispositions. 

Most people my age consume their news and information from online sources, such as Instagram and TikTok, and many are strongly affected by social media influencers, including celebrities such as Ye (the rapper formerly known as Kanye West). This gives disproportionate power to those with the largest platforms, even if they may be misinformed or intentionally spreading hateful rhetoric themselves. 

Influencers can convince their followers to adopt certain political positions or, even worse, racist ideas. These positions often change depending on what is trendy or popular in the moment. At the start of the pandemic, for example, hate was expressed toward the Asian community, based exclusively on misinformation. Currently, people like Kanye West and Kyrie Irving spew antisemitism. 

These two cultural figures have a great deal of influence on the public and their words affect millions of people. Kanye alone had over 30 million followers at the time of his rant, and there are only 14.8 million Jews in the world. In fact, many of Kanye’s followers were influenced by his words as evidenced by their outrage when Adidas cut ties with him.

In an already divided world, it is alarming when “influencers” use their enormous platforms to open the floodgates of hate.

Reading the antisemitic social media comments was frightening, but seeing a banner agreeing with Ye on the 405 freeway took it from online rhetoric to real-world action. In an already divided world, it is alarming when “influencers” use their enormous platforms to open the floodgates of hate.

Further, thousands of #IStandWithIrving and #FreeKyrie tweets have been posted in Irving’s defense after Kyrie publicly promoted a documentary with blatant, antisemitic disinformation. The fact that both celebrities have been “canceled” to a certain extent is one thing, but their words and the fact that they both doubled down on their beliefs have affected the opinions of millions of young people. While it is to be expected that extremist groups are celebrating, many mainstream teens are using these incidents to forge their own viewpoints about the Jewish community. The fact that Kanye’s tweet seemed to empower Irving also proves the point that once a high-profile celebrity promotes disinformation, others are inspired to join in, creating a snowball effect of hateful content. Although some celebrities spoke up against Kanye and Kyrie, those voices were largely offset by the online hate.

While this is daunting, the takeaway is that if social media is your main source of information, make sure to investigate everything that you read, both the veracity of the information and the credibility of the source (and understand that even many credible sources are still skewed to affect public perception). Most importantly, think for yourself, remain open-minded, and do not take someone’s words as truth just because they happen to be famous.

Riley Jackson is a high school student in Los Angeles. She is the founder of Driving With Daisy, a charity that supports underprivileged children.