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picture
of the Kardashians family members for the “Keeping up with the Kardashians”
reality show
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How do
social media and trends shape and change people lifestyles? Nowadays, social media
are gaining a lot of attention as millions of users use it as a tool to communicate,
share and exchange information and ideas. The number of friends and followers on
each social media platforms indicate the user’s popularity, making their platforms
become a powerful tool to the extent that their actions create a trend. A good method
to illustrate how social media and trends influence people lifestyles is via examining
the Kardashian family from different media theories (Postmodernism theory, Hyperreality
theory, Hypodermic Needle theory, Reception theory, Gratification theory).
The Kardashian
family is the most famous hollywood family with a reality TV show called, “Keeping
Up with the Kardashians”. The show mainly focuses on the five sisters which are
Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and their half sisters Kendall
and Kylie Jenner. It also features their parents Kris and Caitlyn Jenner, and their
brother Rob Kardashian. Moreover, each Kardashian-Jenner sisters has million followers
on their social media accounts, allowing them to have big influences toward the
society. For instance, Kim changed the point of view of an ideal body image with
her well-known curvy body. Making an hourglass body and big bottom become a trend.
Hardcore fans of Kim start exercising or undertaking plastic surgery
such as implanting silicon into their bottom. This scenario relates to the concept of Postmodernism. In general, the mass
media and popular culture are the driving forces that guide the society and how
people interact with their environment. In the case of Kim, the trend of big bottom
causes people to strive for a particular body image because it represents beauty
in contemporary society. Furthermore, it is worthwhile to note that this trend only
emerges because the Kardashians’ media empire platforms are potent enough to influence
the overall society.
The Kardashian
family is the most famous hollywood family with a reality TV show called, “Keeping
Up with the Kardashians”. The show mainly focuses on the five sisters which are
Kourtney Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and their half sisters Kendall
and Kylie Jenner. It also features their parents Kris and Caitlyn Jenner, and their
brother Rob Kardashian. Moreover, each Kardashian-Jenner sisters has million followers
on their social media accounts, allowing them to have big influences toward the
society. For instance, Kim changed the point of view of an ideal body image with
her well-known curvy body. Making an hourglass body and big bottom become a trend.
Hardcore fans of Kim start exercising or undertaking plastic surgery
such as implanting silicon into their bottom. This scenario relates to the concept of Postmodernism. In general, the mass
media and popular culture are the driving forces that guide the society and how
people interact with their environment. In the case of Kim, the trend of big bottom
causes people to strive for a particular body image because it represents beauty
in contemporary society. Furthermore, it is worthwhile to note that this trend only
emerges because the Kardashians’ media empire platforms are potent enough to influence
the overall society.
The Kardashian
fans are addicted to “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” because the show provides
them with opportunities to connect with the Kardashians up close. The show also
provides fans with insight drama, personal conversations between the family and
the highs and lows of being in the limelight of each members. Through the show,
they learn the characteristics of each sisters and their different lifestyles such
as, the way Kim likes to throw over the top party for every occasions, Kourtney
only eats gluten free, Khloe always wear gloves while driving and Kendall and Kylie
are obsessed with cars. Many fans try their best to follow the lifestyles of these
sisters and choose the one that they like the most and are best fitted for them.
These informations make the fans feel involved as if they are a part of the family.
This create a Hyperreality in which the fans believe
that they know every aspect of the Kardashian family’s lives even though they have
never met or know them personally. Moreover, there are high possibilities of how
the show portrays each members or events can be scripted or twisted from the truth
to make it more interesting. Additionally, watching multiple episodes of the show
make the fans become deeply integrated in the Kardashian’s daily lives and causes
them to be incapable of distinguishing between physical reality and virtual reality.
The Kardashian
family has over millions of followers each on their individual social media accounts.
They have a lot of fan clubs who are very obsessed with them and want to know their
every moves. By following their social media account, the audience is constantly
being rewarded with additional information about them and is involved with multiple
media and interactive posts. The audience therefore stays constantly alert and informed,
while being consumed with the five Kardashian-Jenner sisters as idols, wanting to
imitate their lifestyle and purchase the brands and products that make their lifestyle
admirable. They start posting picture of themselves using and reviewing the products
that Kardashian-Jenner sisters used and the lifestyles they recreated. Some of them
create Youtube tutorial videos on how to do makeup like the
Kardashian-Jenner sisters and even review Kylie Cosmetic
products on their channel. This resulting to Kylie being able to sold out her lip
kits in 30 seconds and people everywhere are enraged as they were not able to bought
it. They all want to own Kylie’s lip kit because it makes them look cool and in
trend. These actions show that the audience are active rather than passive
because they are always engaging with the media content such as becoming content
producers. Furthermore, the audience also contribute to the successfulness of the
Kardashians through influencing and directing the society’s attention to each members
of the Kardashian.
Through
their reality TV the fans also perceive the family insight words. They start learning
the meaning behind each frequent words used in which only the family understand
such as, “Bible” meaning I swear, “Sus” is short for suspect, “OKURR” meaning okay
and “Momanger” is mom and manager combine together that they created for their mom,
Kris. The words become well-known and trendy after the fans start using it in their
daily conversation because they want to be a part of the Kardashian family. However,
even a coin have two sides, the same goes for the Kardashians followers; there are
both people who love and hate them. Their haters would think that using these words
will make them look shallow and uncool. While some audience believe that using these
words will make them look modern and fashionable. The last group of audience are
the people that have negotiated feelings. They do not hate or love these words and
they accept every perspective. These types of people can be categorised using the Reception theory
of encoding and decoding. How the Kardashians create the insight words and use it
in the show is a way of encoding and delivering messages to the audience. The process
of decoding begins after the audience receive these messages. Furthermore, the audience
start to interpret or ‘decode’ the messages and take on different roles. The fans
that love and approve of these insight words take on a dominant position. The haters
that condemn these words are the oppositional readers. Lastly, the people that neither
hate nor love these words but are willing to understand the perspectives of both
groups are the negotiated readers.
There
are fifteen seasons of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” all together from the year
2007 till now, indicating that its popularity never fade. Audience are obsessed
with dramas and lifestyles the show portray. The way they spend money on luxury
things without giving much thoughts about it. For example, the 2018 Christmas party
at Kim and Kanye West’s home which according to the Daily Mail cost more than $500,000
dollars. They covered their entire yard with real snow for sledding and a candy
bar station with all different desserts. Many people feel that it is very entertaining
to watch because the Kardashians are very serious and competitive about who throw
the best party, especially Kris and
Kim. This become a thing that the Kardashian fans will look forwards to every year
in every festive occasions. Somehow the show fulfilled their psychological needs
and this is called the Gratification
theory. One of the reasons that people watch their show is for entertainment
purposes and to escape from their daily problems. They might also use the Kardashian
lifestyles to reinforce their life goals and achievements in which shape their identity.
After watching the show, many people dream of having the Kardashians’ extravagant
lifestyle and even wish to be like them. They start comparing their life with the
Kardashians and feel that they want to do better. Lastly, people can use the Kardashian
show as a topic of discussion and help them form new social relationships which
enhance their sense of belonging in a society.
In the
final analysis, social media are powerful tools that have big impact on people lifestyles
in many different ways how people use it as a business implement. It shape and change how
each individuals view themselves and the world around them. Through the Kardashian
family it is clear that that by governing the media, everything they do and every
steps they take become a trend that people choose to follow. Postmodernism theory
show how social media and popular culture are the factors that drive and guide how
people in the society interact with their environment. Hyperreality theory give
us the downside of how social media make people incapable of distinguishing between
physical reality and virtual reality when consume continually. The Hypodermic Needle
theory also show how social media causes people to believe in everything they portray
to be true even when its actually not. Reception theory portrays how social media
encode and deliver message to audience and how people decode and perceive the messages
and take on different roles; dominant, optional, and negotiated readers. Gratification
theory indicates the factors of how people use social media to satisfy their psychological
needs such as, to escape from their reality, to create their identity and to form
social relationships to enhance their sense of belonging. By applying these media
theories it give us a clear picture of how media and trends change and shape people
lifestyles.