Lindsay Lohan rejected Pitbull’s invitation to the VMA’s. Beyonce announces that she is pregnant. Chaz Bono will be on the season of Dancing with the Stars. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith reportedly separate. We are a nation obsessed with media and celebrity. The proof? The glossy tabloids featuring people like Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton. Both are famous for accomplishing absolutely nothing. So, why, then are we so fascinated? Social psychologists, according to Cosmos, attribute our glorification of celebrity life to evolutionary reasons. Celebrity fixation is normal, and may even be healthy. It may improve social bonds (in our ‘real’ lives), help us retreat from our own problems and even inspire us. The downside? Those same benefits come with their own drawbacks.
How can a culture infatuated with such individualistic values be healthy? As I mentioned in the beginning the cover stories currently in the tabloids, let me contrast the cover stories in world news magazines: “Tropical Storm Lee lurches ashore in Louisiana”, “Tough economic climate as Obama seeks second term”, “Feds warn of small airplane terror threats”. It is easy to comprehend why we prefer the inconsequential news and prefer to live in the “fantasy” world of celebrities. I am no different. I am a young woman who enjoys fashion magazines and watching the occasional E! News. However, I think the presence of pictures in tabloids of famous people pumping gas or grocery shopping is ridiculous.
Cosmos declares, “social psychologists agree that gossip - whether about family, friends, neighbors or celebrities - still plays an important role in cementing social bonds and improving an individual's status within a group…the importance of gossip as a forum for expressing our ideals, interests, hopes, dreams and moral systems, which all sounds good and healthy.” The problem is, the celebrity culture should not be part of our ideals and morals. Focusing on the tabloids, if anything, puts a distance in our every day relationships. Cosmos goes on to say, “social psychologists agree that the reasons are complex, but some issues seem to recur. One is that we're bored, and living through movie stars is a way of alleviating that boredom. Another is that we're searching for identity. Social fragmentation might also play a part: as family and community values are crushed by the cult of individualism and an omnipresent media, perhaps fantasy relationships are becoming easier to form than real ones”. None of this sounds normal or healthy. I can think of a lot of activities to alleviate boredom other than reading the gossip mags. And let me just say, if we are all searching for our identity; let’s hope we are not looking for it in the latest ‘Life & Style’.
I often fear the state of our pretentious and self-centered culture when I think about my two young nieces. I do not want them to grow up idolizing those in the spotlight. I hope they never see a single episode of the “Jersey Shore”. I hope their role model is not Miley Cyrus, but rather, their mom. I hope they don’t equate money with power, but rather find power in their passions. I have hopes, but all it takes is flipping the channel to MTV, and my hopes start to diminish.
I agree completely with what you have said. I think that it is a shame that our society has accepted this to be the "norm." I also fear that for many young girls that they their role model will be some crazy, uncontrolled young lady with no morals rather than her mother. Likewise, that young boys that their role model will be some immoral, lazy rapper or pop star rather than his father. I have been blessed and still am blessed to live in a family who has taught me to not love the world, nor find my satisfaction in the world.
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