Celebrities have always been adored and fawned over by the general public. Since the dramatic increase in the use of technology, it seems that the obsession with celebrities has increased just as dramatically.
Everywhere we look, there is news about even the minutest things in every celebrity’s life. It seems that everyone knows more about what happened at the Grammy’s than they do about ongoing political, scientific, social and environmental issues.
Facebook and Twitter create a world focused on what people are doing at any given second. We have been trained to think we need to care about everything celebrities do. There is a lot going on in the world that most people do not know about. America has many “news” sources such as E!, Us, People Magazine and TMZ dedicated purely to celebrity news. This is absurd. Why do we care so much about these people? What makes them so special? As viewers, we try to live vicariously through celebrities. We also try to mimic them and follow what they say.
Since many celebrities are spokespeople for major brands, we tend to buy these things they’re promoting without a second thought. For example, Kanye West is notorious for his music and producing. Recently, he’s also crossed into the fashion industry. His clothing is simple and could easily be found or replicated for significantly less than retail price. Since his name is associated with these clothes, people are paying thousands of dollars for a simple t-shirt or sweater. This is a serious problem. Americans are becoming very disconnected with the world because we have lost sight of what is important. We tend to care only about what’s happening in pop culture and certain types of people.
It’s crucial to recognize the world around us and care for everyone. We can’t turn a blind eye on something just because it isn’t pretty, entertaining or mindlessly promoting things we don’t need. Our obsession with celebrities also contributes to lowered self-esteem issues that many of us have. We often see these people in full makeup and edited to look good. No one looks like that. If we were to step back and not follow celebrities so closely, I think a lot of people would see that some of the standards we set are unrealistic for anybody.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t care about entertainers or their lives. They’re people too and they need to be respected. They also need their space. Following them around and essentially stalking them isn’t good for us or them. We need to take a step back and look at the rest of the world around us, and we will be able to see more of what’s going on in the world and even broaden our knowledge.
