Prof. Longina Strumska-Cylwik WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF Division of General CELEBRITIES ‘BEHAVING BADLY’ Pedagogy, ONLINE? Social Science Faculty, University of Gdańsk, Poland ABSTRACT
[email protected] With a specific online article as point of departure, this article1 investigates the phenomenon of “bad behaviour” on the part of so- Prof. Bert Olivier called “celebrities” online. It focuses on the article in question to be able to show what is at stake, namely, the fact that ordinary people Department of are affected by celebrities’ online actions, specifically in the form of Philosophy, either confusion regarding their own behaviour, or by imitating the University of the Free State, actions concerned. This is followed by raising questions regarding Bloemfontein, South online behaviour and “normalisation” and exploring these through Africa the work of relevant authors such as Goffman (2006), Maisonneuve
[email protected] (1995), Huizinga (2007) and others, with a view to make sense of the fact that even supposedly shocking behaviour on the part DOI: https://dx.doi. of celebrities seems to be judged in terms of different criteria org/10.18820/24150525/ compared to everyday actions on the part of ordinary people. Comm.v23.13 The role of advanced electronic technology in affecting people’s ISSN 2415-0525 (Online) behaviour is also noted, before turning to Plato and (particularly) Aristotle’s notion of mimesis (imitation) to be able to understand Communitas 2018 what might be termed the “celebrity effect”. The related question of 23: 194-206 identification with the images of celebrities is also briefly examined before concluding with a reference to Boorstin’s (1992) famous © Creative Commons With account of a “celebrity”.