Band 9 model answer
Modern media lavishes relentless attention on entertainers, athletes and online personalities, and impressionable young people frequently model their behaviour, tastes and appearance on these figures. This essay explores the reasons behind such intense admiration and argues that, on the whole, the trend is decidedly harmful.
The principal reason for this fascination lies in constant media exposure combined with the peculiarities of adolescent psychology. Teenagers, still actively forming their identities, naturally seek out role models, and the press obligingly supplies an unending stream of glamorous, seemingly effortless success stories. Social media intensifies the effect dramatically by granting fans the illusion of intimacy, as celebrities broadcast their daily routines and cultivate a sense of personal friendship that powerfully encourages followers to imitate their opinions, purchases and entire lifestyles.
While such admiration can occasionally inspire positive ambition, I consider the overall influence detrimental. Celebrity culture relentlessly promotes unrealistic standards of beauty, wealth and instant fame, fostering deep dissatisfaction in those who cannot possibly attain them. Worse still, it frequently glamorises reckless conduct, from extravagant consumption to substance abuse, repackaging these as enviable markers of success. When young people measure their own worth against carefully airbrushed perfection, the predictable consequences are anxiety, corrosive low self-esteem and badly distorted values, none of which serve their long-term flourishing in any meaningful way.
In conclusion, intense media coverage and the universal human need for role models together explain why the young so readily emulate celebrities, yet this phenomenon largely undermines their wellbeing. Cultivating in the young a genuine admiration for substantial, hard-earned achievement, rather than for hollow, manufactured fame, would surely be a far healthier and more sustainable alternative for everyone concerned.
Examiner’s notes
- Task Response: the essay addresses both the 'why' and the 'positive or negative' elements, committing clearly to a negative evaluation while acknowledging an occasional upside.
- Coherence and Cohesion: logical paragraph roles (causes, then evaluation) and linking phrases such as 'While such admiration can occasionally inspire' weave concession smoothly into the argument.
- Lexical Resource: expressive collocations like 'airbrushed perfection', 'glamorises reckless conduct' and 'manufactured fame' demonstrate idiomatic, precise lexis.