The “Worshipping’’ of Celebrities:

In today’s day and age, especially considering the fact that we are more technologically advanced than ever before, it seems bizarre that more people know about the latest celebrity scandals rather than what is going on worldwide.  To me personally, this is a matter of deep concern because even though it has become easier and easier to inform the people, they information that they are receiving is not of dire importance and it is actually worse if they are selecting gossip over factual news. The reason of why this is becoming a more trending phenomenon is not exactly a concrete one but I think its fair to say that the populous is slowly giving in to the pop culture and therefore they begin to disregard, or not hold to the same value, the importance of keeping up with global events. In our class discussion, it came up that people in general tend to “worship” either the celebrity or the ideas that they embody. We looked at how people in general tend to always root for that particular famous individual who embodies the person’s desires that evidently seem out of their reach. An example of such a scenario would be a young athlete idolizing the leading or prominent athlete in that particular sport. Although I personally think that this may be a factor as to why we can say that people “worship” celebrities, I honestly think that people worship the whole idea, or concept, associated with celebrities. I think that it’s the hype, glamour, money, and lavish lifestyle that attract the lower and middle class. I think that these aspects are appealing because they’re things that are sought out. I think it’s always easier to look at what you don’t have and yearn for it in some way rather than to look at what you do have and be satisfied.

http://www.lionsroarnews.com/opinions/when-fascination-turns-into-fanaticism-the-cult-of-celebrity-1.2829238#.T3M6R1swA3s

As noted in the Southeastern Louisiana University newspaper, this notion of “worshipping” celebrities is not something new but rather something that has been going on ever since we, as a society, have become more and more able to facilitate the spreading of news. The article noted that nowadays, a paparazzi photograph of any celebrity doing a simple everyday task such as brushing their teeth or simply grocery shopping sells for thousands of dollars. Along with this, a question that was posed was; how do the lives of celebrities differ from ours that make them so much more susceptible to exploitation?  The article also correctly noted that this topic is not easy to address. We know that there is a million dollar industry that revolves around celebrity news BUT “just because it’s out there doesn’t mean we should consume it so readily.” It’s not wrong for our society to hold such a fondness for celebrities – we just need to be more aware that there are more important things in life. “We can’t forget about the troops we have at war or the political and natural disasters plaguing us and other countries just because someone famous had a wardrobe malfunction.”