Third Way: Pop Culture Or Pop Politics?

smartboy10

In pop culture, we often see individuals such as actors, singers, comedians, talk show hosts, and other idolized individuals being assigned a higher level of perceived responsibility in terms of their civic duty. This isn't necessarily fair in that just because someone carries a higher degree of trust within the public because of their “elevated status” does not necessarily make them more informed than the average voter, barring what exactly they do professionally.

However, there are certain benefits to the ways in which these public figures relay information. Oftentimes, they can reach people who may not necessarily trust politicians but trust the individuals that they see on their television screens. Likewise, those who may not have considered voting to be as important a civic duty as it is could be inspired to change their minds when they see their favorite celebrities going and doing the same.

In the case of these celebrities, we see the primary method of communication being through online campaigns, ads that they participate in, and most notably, social media posts on platforms such as Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook, to name a few. In 2020, there was a particular uptick in this activity in that we saw more and more public figures urging individuals to stay home, to practice social distancing, as well as to continue voting. The “#IStayAtHomeFor” trend, launched by actor Kevin Bacon, became a way for everyone across the internet to share the reasons why they were following stay-at-home orders and created a sense of community during social distancing. Many celebrities participated in this trend and drove public engagement with it.

Mail-in voting saw a surge in 2020 as individuals weren’t leaving their homes to go to the polls, and many celebrities took it upon themselves to communicate the importance of continuing to engage in civic responsibility despite stay-at-home orders. This surge helped to maintain a sense of hope, as it urged Americans to look towards the future. A future that, for many, felt distant and as though it may never arrive.

Not only was 2020 a significant time for celebrities speaking out about COVID-19, social distancing, and the importance of mental health, but also in regard to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Following the murder of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis, many celebrities took to the internet to announce their support of the Black community in America, as well as the importance of holding law enforcement accountable for their actions and for the damage that their actions cause.

One particular example of this is the period of time on Instagram where celebrities changed their profile pictures to a black square for one day, referred to as ‘Blackout Tuesday’.

Blackout Tuesday was an attempt to show solidarity and protest virtually for the Black Lives Matter movement. For much of it, Americans quarantined inside their homes and could not take to the streets. So as a country, they had to find new and innovative ways to show their support for the community and to push back against the injustices they were witnessing.

While there are situations where celebrities sharing their platforms can be incredibly beneficial, such as in the case of the BLM movement and COVID-19 precautions, there are also instances wherein we must consider what is being said to be potentially misleading.

In actuality, very little is known about how these people live their lives, about their political affiliations, about how they vote. They have a team of PR representatives behind them telling them what to say and what not to say, and helping them to craft the most compelling and publicly appropriate messages to be displayed across the internet in order to maintain a good reputation and protect their careers.

Albeit this may be a bit of a cynical perspective to take, but one simply cannot risk the dangers of blind allegiance to figures they've never met and do not truly know. Civic responsibility involves holding true to one's identity rather than allowing it to be swayed by the ‘man behind the curtain’, so to speak.

As individuals and as American citizens, our civic responsibility is not to be swayed by the opinions of outside sources to the point that we abandon our own identities. This means that we can agree with a tweet that an actor or actress publishes on a social media forum, but we should not take it as word of law. We owe it to ourselves and to society to do our due diligence and to look into the validity of the claim in order to prevent the spread of misinformation.

The importance of being aware of the ambiguities of what public figures post online cannot be stressed enough. If we simply allow ourselves to be moved by the opinions and seemingly clear identities of individuals whom we've never interacted with and do not know the background of, we allow ourselves to fall into a trap of bandwagon-type influence instead of honoring individuality.

What can be said for sure is that in order to uphold civic responsibility and duty, we must form our own identities, our own affiliations, and our own thought processes, independent of those whom we deem to be figures of importance to us or who we see as role models. In this way, we uphold the democratic process of the United States and honor our own individuality rather than allow ourselves to be shoved into a mold and thrust into the many.