Our Obession with Celebrity

[Housepig]

It's impossible not to notice how obsessed with celebrity our culture is. Tabloid newspapers are dominated by stories about the trivial lives of famous people, and complete ignorance of celebrity gossip is impossible without living in a monastery. And I think this is terrible.

 

 

 

There may not seem anything wrong with this culture at first glance, but I think it is extremely damaging to society. Firstly, it breeds ignorance. The majority of people get more information about gossip than about politics or world events, making us an extremely vulnerable culture to any sort of crisis. Society could (and, to a certain extent, is) be collapsing around us, yet people wouldn't notice until it was too late; the government could gradually slide towards fascism, yet people wouldn't care, being too busy following the lives of celebrities and watching reality TV.

 

 

 

Take the effect of Britain's Got Talent, for instance (apologies to those who haven't heard of this; I'm just using at as an example of the wider problem). The economy is at its worst (I don't know the details; correct me if I'm wrong) since the Great Depression, and the European elections are tomorrow , yet all people seem to want to talk about is Susan Boyle.

 

 

 

It may not be intentional--most likely they are merely giving people what they want with no goal in mind but to make money--but it seems the media is effectively distracting us from the real world.

 

 

 

Thoughts?

[obfuscator]

I agree completely. Society's obsession with celebrities is unhealthy. The media that portrays celebrities preys on human insecurity and has a lot of negative effects. Personally I don't care what celebrities do, ever.

[Nenga]

Well i'm not much of a celebrity chaser. I hardly ever watch the news, I don't keep up with gossip about celebrities and I don't really give a rats [wagon] about them.

[Imalilranger]

if it gets me in a megan fox/ scarlette johanason 3 some im happy :D

[RichieMcD]

I can't stand this [cabbage] with celebrities, people don't deserve to be famous unless they're skilled enough to be famous. The fact that a huge amount of people are obsessed with celebrities is bad, but what makes it worse is people who haven't done anything requiring skills which actually make them famous.

 

 

 

I.e Jordan, Jade Goody, Paris Hilton etc, they've all done absolutely nothing to be famous other than make fools of themselves and act like a bunch of [bleep].

 

 

 

Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers etc. As much as I hate them, their [cabbage] "personality" and crap like that, at least they've done something requiring skills to make them famous.

 

 

 

There is some celebrities I feel for though, being followed around by Paparazzi and anything that happens in their life being printed the next day in some [cabbage] tabloid. They should at least some form of privacy if their not the attention [bleep] type.

[rangeor]

My mom likes to watch Entertainment Tonight and insists it's a good show. #-o It's practically facebook for famous people, but on TV. "LOL, look at this video of Oscar from The Office stripteasing!!"

[indy500fan]

Complaining about celebrity obsession is still giving them what they want: talking about them.

[redhaloguy]

That's all we consist of, gossip. I'm sure at school, work any type of social encounter, you'll be talking about someone poorly behind their backs. There's not that much appeal to me in the least. It's fairly common practice though... movie stars and such fill that gap of our lives that we have nobody to tease.

 

 

 

Other than that, I like it for when their new movies are coming out, if something like a death hinders their work, I'd like to know about that.

[Lenin64]

if it gets me in a megan fox/ scarlette johanason 3 some im happy :D

 

It won't.

[Will H]

Take the effect of Britain's Got Talent, for instance (apologies to those who haven't heard of this; I'm just using at as an example of the wider problem). The economy is at its worst (I don't know the details; correct me if I'm wrong) since the Great Depression, and the European elections are tomorrow , yet all people seem to want to talk about is Susan Boyle.

 

That's because people want to talk about something happy in their lives. Why would we want to completely immerse ourselves in information (or lack therof) which depresses us? I realise that we should really talk about things that affect ourselves, but the fact is that everyone's human and doesn't want to be chronically depressed.

[Lateralus]

Living vicariously is much easier than creating an interesting life for yourself.

[Star_Fox]

i seriously can't stand idolizing any celebrity. not that i can't control my peers, but it annoys me because the gossips brings misery everywhere. at school, advertisements, television.

[fastortoise]

Living vicariously is much easier than creating an interesting life for yourself.

 

Because Hollywood has a great understanding on how to play with your subconscious. Some of the most brilliant people of our times are Hollywood executives/produces/directors, sadly they are all money driven. Say what you want about corporations and huge studios, they're still smarter than any of us.

 

 

 

If people that had important things to say simply knew how to convey their news to the population with as much efficiency as Hollywood, maybe we would be living in a society that craved constructive knowledge.

[RpgGamer]

I hate it when people idolize celebrities. So few of them deserve half the attention and affection they recieve. Honestly, celebrities are mostly made up of idiots, junkies, jerks, and sell outs. The idolization of such a despicable section of our species can't be healthy. Gossip and reality TV need to go away for the betterment of human kind. I'm sick of people being payed millions to make an [wagon] of themselves on TV "looking for love" or whatever bulls*** their trying to sell us.

[warri0r45]

I agree. Society's obsession with celebrities is a distraction from what's really important. People should be more interested in politics and news, but unfortunately they aren't.

[deathdrow]

I agree. Society's obsession with celebrities is a distraction from what's really important. People should be more interested in politics and news, but unfortunately they aren't.

 

Maybe they use it to distract themselves from having to face what's actually important.

 

But not really, most of them are just idiots.

[Rebdragon]

I don't really get it, and my sister's one of them. You know, people who obsess over celebrities. She reads People and all that.

[i_love_burritos]

if it gets me in a megan fox/ scarlette johanason 3 some im happy :D

 

 

 

:thumbup:

 

 

 

Also, why is everyone suddenly started hating on celebrities ? I mean it's not their fault they're popular, in fact it's you shallow bastards that take notice of them in the first place.

 

 

 

 

Because Hollywood has a great understanding on how to play with your subconscious. Some of the most brilliant people of our times are Hollywood executives/produces/directors, sadly they are all money driven. Say what you want about corporations and huge studios, they're still smarter than any of us.

 

 

 

If people that had important things to say simply knew how to convey their news to the population with as much efficiency as Hollywood, maybe we would be living in a society that craved constructive knowledge.

 

 

 

As much as I'd like to believe that - that's a crock of [cabbage]. For reasons I can't explain [because I'm horrible at explaining] - why everyone seems to think that, is a mystery to me. It's one of those "well known facts" that people repeat endlessly. Also, I've noticed that people seek to, either consciously or unconsciously, bring themselves "down" so that they can develop a complex.

 

 

 

EDIT: Trying to make the [bleep]ing thumbs up work.

[Zierro]

Because Hollywood has a great understanding on how to play with your subconscious. Some of the most brilliant people of our times are Hollywood executives/produces/directors, sadly they are all money driven. Say what you want about corporations and huge studios, they're still smarter than any of us.

 

 

 

They're good at getting masses of people to believe a particular thing or to feel a certain way. It's their strong point, that's all. This alone doesn't make them geniuses. You can't judge intelligence on one little factor.

 

 

 

That being said, I don't even think it requires that much smarts to know what people want.

[Housepig]

 

Because Hollywood has a great understanding on how to play with your subconscious. Some of the most brilliant people of our times are Hollywood executives/produces/directors, sadly they are all money driven. Say what you want about corporations and huge studios, they're still smarter than any of us.

 

 

 

If people that had important things to say simply knew how to convey their news to the population with as much efficiency as Hollywood, maybe we would be living in a society that craved constructive knowledge.

 

 

 

As much as I'd like to believe that - that's a crock of [cabbage]. For reasons I can't explain [because I'm horrible at explaining] - why everyone seems to think that, is a mystery to me. It's one of those "well known facts" that people repeat endlessly. Also, I've noticed that people seek to, either consciously or unconsciously, bring themselves "down" so that they can develop a complex.

 

 

 

EDIT: Trying to make the [bleep] thumbs up work.

 

 

 

I don't believe that either. I think they simply exploit a flaw in society, rather than actualy intending to make us ignorant. I suppose part of it them problem is society, but it's also that people naturaly prefer ignorance. Ignorance may be bliss, but so is a narcotic high.

 

 

 

Take the effect of Britain's Got Talent, for instance (apologies to those who haven't heard of this; I'm just using at as an example of the wider problem). The economy is at its worst (I don't know the details; correct me if I'm wrong) since the Great Depression, and the European elections are tomorrow , yet all people seem to want to talk about is Susan Boyle.

 

 

 

That's because people want to talk about something happy in their lives. Why would we want to completely immerse ourselves in information (or lack therof) which depresses us? I realise that we should really talk about things that affect ourselves, but the fact is that everyone's human and doesn't want to be chronically depressed.

 

 

 

I wouldn't call that particular scandal 'happy'; I think it's deeper than that. People have little more interest in 'good' events than they do in 'bad' ones; it's not that people turn to trivia to escape depression, but that they are influenced to prefer it throughought their lives. It's a vicous circle really: the more the media idolize celebrity, the more ignorant people become; the more ignorant people are, the more the media breed ignorance by giving ingorant people what they want.

[fastortoise]

That being said, I don't even think it requires that much smarts to know what people want.

 

That would mean that the problem is not getting the important message to the people, it would be the people ignoring the information. By observation it seems to be so, but a little part of me wants to make me believe that, under other conditions, people can be more aware of their surroundings. I think(hope) that people will listen to what country leaders/University heads have to say if they simply tried being more interesting.

[Plugpoint]

Yeah I agree, people who buy Hello!/OK!/Heat magazines are what's wrong with the world. Seriously I don't care if Cheryl Cole's angry with her husband, I don't care if Fern Britton had a gastric band, I don't care that Susan Boyle went into the Priory and I don't care about Rihanna and Chris Brown had a fight. It has no impact on anybody's life unless you know them.

[Da_Latios]

Celebrities? I still don't know what the hell Miley Cyrus did.

[BlueLancer]

Say what you want about corporations and huge studios, they're still smarter than any of us.

 

 

 

 

'They' at Hollywood or corporations are not some unreachable superhumans. Often they are excellent social manipulators, even with hints of sociopathy and lack of empathy towards fellow employees. A lot of them have average IQ's and are otherwise quite average.

 

 

 

Todays 'celebrities' have done nothing worth celebrating or anything at all making them 'role models'... Look at it objectively, those stories sell because people buy them. Gossip magazines will make articles about the past girlfriends of ex-Big Brother competition winners as long as there are people dull enough to keep reading about them. I don't judge those people, but it's a market and those magazines tap into them.

 

 

 

The only 'obsession' with celebrity is amongst a small niche of people in society, statistically gossip is marketed towards women with low education (though there are people of all social classes/races/genders into gossip). Most people in society are not 'obsessed' with the latest drunk adventures of Britney or Amy Winehouse. If you asked around in your circle of family and friends you'd likely find a minor percentage is actually obsessed with 'celebrities'

[sohkmj1]

I'm not sure why the press goes crazy when a celebrity "could" be pregnant, divorced, have a personal friend of the opposite gender, or something. Who really cares about what lives they lead? The only reasons people obsess with a celebrity are because:

 

1. Said person landed lead role in overly hyped about movie

 

2. Said person is rich

 

3. Said person is obscenely lucky and gets recognized for a talent by another celebrity

 

4. Said person is a teenager who is at least 2 of the 3 points listed above

 

5. Said person is all of the above