 Since this is a virtual event and there's no one gathered here in a physical audience, I would be remiss not to acknowledge whatever piece of technology you're tuning in on today, whether it be your laptop, or your cell phone, or even your smart fridge. I want you to think about just how much time you spend in front of your screens in a given week, and be honest with yourself. Is that number higher than you'd like to admit? Or do you have some enviable superhero resolve? On my Apple devices, every week I get a report about just how much time I spend staring at my screens, and week after week I'm surprised by my own inability to stay off of Twitter and Instagram and Reddit. I even set time limits for myself, but it's so easy with just the slip of a finger to put productivity to the side and enter this hypnotic vortex, one that always seems to remind me of what celebrities are doing and saying. Celebrity culture is impactful and pervasive, regardless of how much time you and I spend staring at our screens. You and I might not like the same celebrities, follow the same ones on Twitter, or care to engage with any of them at all, but their mere existence provides fodder with which we can agree, disagree, and form our own opinions about success and the world around us. Celebrity culture reels us in with news updates and documentaries and social media posts that are targeted specifically at each of us. This past year alone, we paid close attention to the use of celebrity voice in the activism sphere, seeing examples that were both widely critiqued, as well as uplifted. The poorly received I Take Responsibility video campaign featured white celebrity after white celebrity dramatically acknowledging their role in perpetuating racism, set against somber background music and a black and white video filter. This campaign was quickly labeled as performative and out of touch, akin to the Blackout Tuesday initiative, which flooded Instagram with black squares but lacked substantial action. There are other campaigns, though, like hashtag share the mic now, which was a social media takeover that paired black women directly with celebrity audiences that they otherwise wouldn't have had access to. And this campaign was praised for removing the common savior trope of celebrities feeling obligated to speak out on somebody else's behalf. Now, there are many more of these campaigns that we could discuss and tease apart further, but I'd like to take a step back and ask the question, why do we care what celebrities think anyway? Dave Chappelle addressed public infatuation with celebrity culture by bringing up this exact and introspective point during one of his comedy sketches. The rapper Ja Rule can sit on cable news and give us his takes on an election, but why do we as a society care enough to put him there in the first place? I mean, we have to recognize that there are plenty of non-celebrities on the ground and behind the scenes doing incredible work. But in a sense, by being recognized, aren't they also being elevated to some level of celebrity status? Celebrity culture is attributed with a type of success and a claim that fulfills basic human needs. And we're all in pursuit of some type of validation or recognition, whether we're posting a tweet or writing a book or having a conversation with friends. It's hard to deny that as a society we have an inherent desire for a proximity to the power and success that's typically attributed with celebrity culture. But we also have to remind ourselves that being a celebrity isn't a prerequisite for making an impact. This shouldn't come as a surprise to you, but despite the widespread and mainstream nature of celebrity culture, famous people don't have or tell us the answers. If they did, social justice and equality would have been achieved a long time ago by carefully curating public service announcements with traditional Hollywood stars. Celebrity culture does, however, serve as a reflection of the general public's interests and desires, and opens up avenues for us as individuals to contribute to the greater good. The average person's reach has been nothing but magnified due to the internet, as now just about anybody can go viral and achieve celebrity status under the right circumstances, of course. And in that sense, celebrity culture is growing with no signs of stopping, now highlighting social media influencers who are able to permeate all sorts of different social circles. As a member of a STEM field myself, I can remember a time not too long ago when my social media coverage of science topics used to be limited to my professional LinkedIn feed. But now I see scientific representation all across my different social media platforms, and that representation is important because it makes science accessible and bolsters public trust in scientists. At first when I noticed this trend, I thought that the social media algorithms were just doing their job and delivering relevant content to me as a scientist. And that might be true. But at the end of the day, some of these science communicators have become staples of my online interactions. One of these science communicators that I look up to a lot goes by the name Science Sam. Science Sam is a neuroscientist based in Canada who has been an incredible resource, making COVID and vaccine science digestible, and even offering herself as a scapegoat when it comes to sharing harsh realities about the pandemic. And I also look up to people like Dr. Corey Grayson, who is actually a postdoctoral researcher here at the University of Michigan. She inspires me and inspires others with super relatable messaging and conversations and challenges public perception of what scientists are supposed to look like. Now, Dr. Corey and Dr. Sam aren't traditional celebrities, at least not yet, but they do have influence. And that influence ultimately stems from the fact that they decided to do what they love and share it with the world. They just happen to go viral somewhere along the way. But oftentimes it's not even about going viral at all. Sometimes it's the little things, like inclusivity alone, that can afford the same sense of celebrity acclaim to everyday people. I know because this happened to me. So around this time last year, I was embarking on a New Year's resolution to finish reading a book that I had let sit on my shelf for way too long. And I'd like to take this moment to apologize directly to Yagiyazi because homegoing was amazing, 10 out of 10 would recommend. But at this point last year, I hadn't yet read the book. So in an attempt to put some sort of accountability out into the universe, I did what anyone would do and I posted this to my social media. Now I didn't think too much of it at the time and I wasn't expecting it to be a popular post by any means. But one of my friends did send me a direct message after he saw it and invited me to join a book club that he had just started. Now I could talk for a long time about just how pivotal this book club experience has been for me. You see, the friend who invited me, he is a law school bound Ivy League grad who reads with a passion. And it should be clear from my book neglect that I rarely find the time to read for pleasure. So that invitation to join this book club, it terrified me. But it did bring with it a sense of celebrity in that moment. Not because I had a large following or because he had a large following, but because one person was listening, sharing their passion and inviting me to fellowship and be heard. I grew as a person and was able to connect with a diverse group of people all due to a simple act. A response to this post on social media. And sometimes that simplicity is all that's necessary to create opportunity for someone else. Now I don't tell that story for you to rush out and start a book club with your friends. And I don't think the takeaway here is that you should necessarily devote a social media platform to your intellectual pursuits like Dr. Corey and Dr. Sam. See these approaches work for some people, but if you want to make an impact, you can do that now. You don't have to be a celebrity or an influencer to do so. You just have to find opportunities to celebrate yourself and the people around you. The ego and distractions that typically accompany celebrity status are ultimately harmful to progress. So I want you to take a moment and forget about how it reflects on your sense of celebrity. Whatever that means to you. And share your message with an open mind simply for the love of the craft. And I want you to make a celebrity of someone else by taking the time to critically engage with their message and amplifying their voice. Celebrating yourself goes hand in hand with celebrating those around you. And when done properly, both you and the community around you flourish. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. became a celebrity not by seeking fame, but by caring for the concerns he saw in the community around him and giving importance to voices on the periphery that the mainstream had drowned out. Transformative change is a domino effect, and it starts with you and your community. And it really has nothing to do with what the rapper Ja Rule thinks on cable news. And this is the celebrity culture shift.