The mind-boggling “celebrities – love em – hate em” behavior that afflicts so many idle and easily preoccupied people is the subject of this post. For the record I don’t “hate” celebrities nor do I “love” them. I don’t know them, or follow them, or give fig about what they do or don’t do. I don’t put them on pedestals and watch them slip and fall and then criticize them when they hit bottom. In fact, I don’t invest any energy into hating anyone.
I think the obsession with celebrities and their lives and the fact that those who are obsessed with following what they do (both fans and haters) speak as if they actually know the celebs points out how socially fragmented we have become. Legions of people are searching for their identity and it’s telling that the most bored and sedentary adolescents and least educated adults, who are so far removed from reality identify with celebs and speak of them as though they live next door.
It makes no sense for the average person to hang on the words of celebrities they find in tabloids, magazines, on Twitter, radios or on the tube, nor does it make sense that they cannot get enough of the paparazzi’s photo shots, unless or until one understands that
(1) fantasy plays a huge role in human lives;
(2) rituals also play a huge role in human lives;
(3) many remain primitive thinkers even after becoming adults;
(4) the younger, poorer and less educated we are, and the more far removed from realizing a celebrity lifestyle we are, the more likely we are to become addicted to celeb watching either as celeb fans or as celeb haters;
(4) the behaviors of celebs often exceed the societal norms and boundaries, and those who worship them are bound by providing a sense of vicarious “guilty pleasure” while what binds their “haters” is a sense of self righteous indignation;
(5) we live in a youth driven cultures so gossiping about this or that celeb and emulating them externally (hairstyles, clothing, etc.) provides a point of connection and bonding with other fantasizers within a peer group, and a means of defining separation between peer groups;;
(6) celebrity worship or it’s antithesis celebrity hatred can be a substitute for actually investing in more conventional relationships and a diversion from coping with existing relationships problems;
(7) learning about celebrities from tabloids and defending them or railing against them provides a false sense of being educated, knowledgeable and competent when in fact the celebrity worshiper or celebrity hater can rarely be described as possessing more knowledge then the average highschool drop-out.
Read about the study of around 700 people aged 18 to 60 discovered that there were three types of Celebrity Worship Syndrome.
Entertainment-social
This dimension comprises attitudes that fans are attracted to a favorite celebrity because of their perceived ability to entertain and become a social focus such as “I love to talk with others who admire my favorite celebrity” and “I like watching and hearing about my favorite celebrity when I am with a large group of people”.
Intense-personal
Intense-personal aspect of celebrity worship reflects intensive and compulsive feelings about the celebrity, akin to the obsessional tendencies of fans often referred to in the literature; for example “I share with my favorite celebrity a special bond that cannot be described in words” and “When something bad happens to my favorite celebrity I feel like it happened to me’”.
Borderline-pathological
This dimension is typified by uncontrollable behaviors and fantasies regarding scenarios involving their celebrities, such as “I have frequent thoughts about my favorite celebrity, even when I don’t want to” and “my favorite celebrity would immediately come to my rescue if I needed help”. — Celebrity Worship Syndrome
NZmoores
July 18, 2010
Celebrity worship has always been fraught, as are all mind-altering activities. Today, reading about Mel and Oksana and Oprah and Miley and Lilo, and Obama, well, not so much the Prez, helps us realize that mebbe we, personally, are not so weird/strange/hopeless. But as a race, we are clearly doomed. No question. Now that I’m blogging humor, my muse is frequently some of the above-named celebrity goofballs, so I am beholden to their madness and/or PR spinners. If I took them or their antics seriously … lawsy, lawsy, lawsy. It would be one ticket to the rubber room, thanks.
timethief
July 20, 2010
@NZmoores
Sadly many people do seem to take their antics seriously. So I hope your humor blog enjoys great success. Thanks for visiting and commenting too.
Kath
July 20, 2010
You hit that one spot on…I agree with you completely. I too steered clear from all that foolishness, I mean they are no different from us- well, except perhaps that their bodies are almost leaking with silicone & botox, LOL. Anyway, I appreciate this post, very well written.
timethief
July 26, 2010
I steered clear of it too or maybe a better way of putting it is that I didn’t feel drawn to it and didn’t get into the fantasizing that comes with that territory.
Jean
July 18, 2010
I knew someone well, as a close friend for a decade or so, who probably fit abit of the entertainment-social pattern. She was besotted by Mozart’s music.
She saw the movie, Amadeus, over 20 times. At the movie theatre.
She professed her love to anyone about her obsession. She knew Mozart’s life story.
And she said it was an obsession. But didn’t talk about Mozart all the time. It was more a leisure, personal time topic.
She was university-educated, was an excellent leader/supervisor for her organization, articulate, a real political science buff (that was also her major.)
Through her, I got into baroque music beyond Mozart. OUr joint love of live baroque music was great in attending regular baroque music concerts for several years. For me, that was all. The baroque music interest is still with me ..I attended a live baroque music concert in Prague last month. And it was a wonderful experience.
Friend left her Mozart obsession behind over time when she moved more broadly into baroque music.
Would be interested in hearing about other people’s celebrity obsessions for awhile or someone else they knew. Other than this friend, none of my friends freaked out over 1 celebrity when we were growing up or even now. It’s hard to relate to some female fans crying over heart-throb celebrities.
timethief
July 20, 2010
I don’t know any adult who is a celebrity worshiper but I do have a friend with a teenage daughter who seems to be obsessed with “stars”. I also see kids in the youth group who are also celeb worshipers.
Ladygoodwood
July 19, 2010
This is a thought-provoking post. It is a worrying correlation that the more disenfranchised people become from mainstream life, the greater the propensity to become celebrity-obsessed.
One of the things I do, okay it’s me and my quirkiness, is to look into other people’s shopping trolleys when in the supermarket line. They say ‘you are what you eat’ – well I believe you are also ‘what you read and what you watch’. There seems to be a direct relationship between buying junk processed food and buying cheap celebrity magazines. I have yet to spot a trolley loaded with fruit and vegetables, fish and tofu and a cheap celebrity magazine. Adversely, I have yet to spot a trolly loaded with pizza, burgers, fries and ice-cream and a National Geographic.
It’s exactly as you say in point 4, the poorer and less-educated we are, the more people want to be Paris Hilton’s best friend. I over-hear young, poorly dressed women, with their limited vocabulary becoming energised in discussing what Cheryl Cole should do next.
Yet the majority of these so-called celebrities have never done much to add any real value to this world. If these are the new idols, how can we expect young people to develop responsible social values and a sense of meritocracy and achievement?
It also concerns me how these young people, of low education and very limited welfare income, buy-in to the designer label culture that now includes mobile telephones. I see young single mothers, on welfare, with designer-dressed yet under-nourished and unstimulated children, makes me so sad that our sophisticated societies seem to place so little import on real societal issues and values.
I loved this post and it’s challenging subject matter, it certainly energised me to comment.
Smiles and blessings.
timethief
July 20, 2010
I have the same concerns about youth too. I also witness low income single mom’s dressed in designer clothes pushing shopping carets full of processed junk food with movie mags on top. The same moms drop off their teens at the youth group and the kids are “star” worshipers too. They haven’t had a decent meal and they spend the evening snacking on suck food and sucking high energy drinks full of caffeine and discussing “the stars”.
Dyeve
July 19, 2010
Interest in others… is a natural curiosity, which underpin social relations. It is natural to know more about those with whom you live, whether they are relatives, friends, neighbors or only known, it is one of the mechanisms for the functioning of social groups. Famous people have always existed only to make known the means have changed over time. Today, media are “responsible” for life stars. We know so much about these characters because there’s just radio, television and Internet, we provide nonstop information. Sometimes we are the right new car bombarded with news about the famous affair of X or Y lovely, all with news of wars, famine or natural disasters.
Along with the adored star, your life take a new identity, in which „ you” want you can find, which makes you see life in pink. That’s the trend that an advertising industry operates, with excellent results. You can even convince your experience. Characters promoted products are well known and admired more successful than others. Even if you are a rational being in a corner of his soul, you feel like you are more beautiful, more attractive, more desirable if the products that advertise gates favorite star. Thus, the identity can take over the “dream”, more or less consciously, and which in other circumstances, „you’d” have a hard time gaining. This I think that most young people think..smiles.
Nice post TT! :-)
Have a wonderful Day!
XO
timethief
July 20, 2010
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment. Isn’t it sad that people are so dissatisfied and unfulfilled in their own lives that they adopt lifestyles that belong to others? Yes, advertising provokes this and it’s everywhere. It’s so sad to see young people fall victim to the corporate advertising ploys aimed to make them part with what little money they have.
The Intentional Sage
July 19, 2010
Great stuff! I think you are definitely onto something with the celebrity worship (positive or negative).
I realize that it is just one aspect of one of the points you made above, but I thought I would mention that in my experience, education (lack thereof) may not necessarily correlate with celebrity obsession. When I was an undergraduate, many of the people I called friends were obsessed with gossiping about campus-happenings AND celebrity happenings. There were incessant pop culture references, so much so that there often became catch-phrases that were used colloquially in conversation and sometimes, with superiors.
The unfortunate and strange part is that the superiors often TOOK IN these catch-phrases as a way of fitting in with their subordinates. The relationships developed were somewhat odd to witness, but nonetheless they happened, and they seemed to happen because of some shared interest in ‘celebrity.’
Maybe it is that you didn’t mean education in terms of level of education (via degrees and advanced degrees), but education in terms of ‘self-development.’ :-)
With Love and Gratitude,
The Intentional Sage
timethief
July 20, 2010
Thanks so much for pointing that out. I immediately flipped back to University days and knew exactly what you meant. You are quite right. Education in terms of “self development” is what’s lacking. Thanks for visiting and commenting too.
Lana
July 21, 2010
Personally I’m just sad that so many people are distracted from much more serious issues by people they don’t even know. In the words of Jewel; “People living their lives for you on TV. They say they’re better than you & you agree.”
timethief
July 24, 2010
Wow! What a quote that one is. Thanks for posting it.
VCP University Desgree
July 28, 2010
This is a frighteningly accurate view of the world that most of see through the looking glass. I live and work in Thailand with Webster University Thailand, and over here their celebrity culture is just as gripping and fascinating for the public. They have gossip columns and magazines everywhere. Even the news is constantly heavily doctored with reports of which celebrity was involved with which news event. Almost feels as if people who are famous for being famous create their own version of reality for the rest of us to follow.