Last Saturday, I had to get on Facebook fairly early in my morning routine and what I saw simply set me off. You know how Facebook has those little “trending” links on the side? The first item trending was a celebrity spotted wearing her engagement ring. Umm…last I knew, said celebrity was married with children. The second trending item was a celebrity who was denying allegations about his “sex life” with a model—and said celebrity has a celebutante wife and child. After glancing at those two “items,” I ranted, saying something about hating celebrities and then stood up to pour a cup of coffee (perhaps that was why my reaction was so angry—I was waiting for my first cup of coffee to brew!), and my husband asked why. It really didn’t take me long to answer. In fact, my complete angry answer was out of my mouth before I took my first sip of java.
Why do we worship celebrities—especially celebrities with barely a shred of moral fiber—who contribute little to our society? Okay, so maybe they wrote or sang one catchy tune or starred in your favorite movie or reality TV show. Is that a reason to worship them? No. Don’t get me wrong. There are celebrities I admire, and there are plenty of them who actually do good things with their money and time (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie come to mind) and who don’t seem to be seeking photo ops at every turn. We’re falling all over ourselves to find out what these people are doing, and I’m sorry if I offend, but—in terms of society—these people are basically worthless. Yes, I think art is quite important, but why do we care about what they do in their personal lives? Why do we give them our attention?
Let me put this in perspective. I want to know why, in trending Facebook “news,” I didn’t see something about some new scientific breakthrough or discovery or a story about someone in some remote village in Africa who saved five children from starvation. Can you see the difference? That’s the kind of stuff I want to read about and see—positive or inspiring contributions to humanity, things that make all our lives better. What does it say about our society that the top trending topic is about a musician’s alleged extramarital sex life?
I think I might have answered my own question. I’m starting to think that many folks celebrity watch because following celebrities’ train wreck lives might make unfamous people feel better about their own lives—that there’s some piece-of-shit trashy celebrity whose parents’ money helped them achieve their own grab at fame, and said celebrity has everything in the world handed to them…and yet still cannot keep their shit together. Maybe somehow that makes folks feel better about themselves.
I suppose it’s cheap therapy.
But seeing all that shit makes me believe I need therapy. 🙂 Where do you stand on the subject? If you celebrity watch, tell me why. I won’t judge! 🙂 This inquiring mind wants to know!
Carrie
I don’t worship celebrities and don’t understand the appeal. I enjoy watching television shows and movies, but I don’t need to know what’s going on in each actor’s personal life. I am with you in that I would much rather read about science than some celebrity’s love life or beef with another person; I still don’t understand that whole Twitter battle that occurred last week.
I watched a video yesterday called “Politically Challenged” and in which several college students were asked what should have been simple (at least to me) questions:
Who won the Civil War?
Who is our Vice President?
Who did we gain independence from?
One student answered the first question correctly and another was able to answer the second question. Some thought they were trick questions. However, every single student got the following questions right:
What show is Sookie on?
Who is Brad Pitt married to?
Who was he married to before that?
Jade
I don’t even know what Twitter battle you’re talking about–I don’t know quite what that says about me. 😀
So the dilemma, I guess, is figuring out how to make science and geography as appealing as Sookie and Jennifer Aniston… 😉