A socialite is a person who is known to be a part of fashionable high society because of his or her regular participation in social activities and fondness for spending a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained. Some socialites may choose to use their social skills and connections to promote and raise funds for various charitable or philanthropic activities. Socialites are usually in possession of considerable wealth, whether gained by inheritance or otherwise, that can sustain their steady attendance at social functions. Their social movements have been published in the UK's Tatler magazine and they might be listed in features such as the Social Register of the United States.
By the mid-twentieth century, television news gave little attention to members of high society and in the 1970s newspapers curtailed or discontinued their daily "Society" page to institute a Sunday "Style" section. In recent years, socialites have been largely neglected in the media and social prominence has come to reside with celebrities, who are more famous, have a public profile and are often accomplished at a specific profession. Socialites and celebrities were briefly united in the Jet Set around 1960 but in later years the former group were seemingly absorbed and subsumed by the latter, although the facts do not necessarily bear this out, as the two groups are often interchangeable.
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