Austin Sumter, Campus Carrier Online Editor
Have you guys ever noticed how creepy we are all towards celebrities and celebrity wannabes? I mean, let’s think about it: We have magazines, websites, television shows, apps, careers, professions and news space given to actors, actresses, singers, directors and just other people that are famous for no reason. We are obsessed with finding out what they do in every moment of their lives. Will Arnett had sushi last night with Jason Bateman? Beyoncé cut her hair? Kanye and Kim had ANOTHER fight? Angelina Jolie bought coffee? Does this stuff even matter? We don’t know these people. We will probably never know these people in a way that makes any of this information relevant to our lives.
I understand worshipping your own hero when it comes to admiring the talents and wanting to learn more about what they do to become better at their career. But when it comes to constantly checking Rihanna’s Twitter feed just to see if she’ll say something, anything – it becomes a bit of a problem.
I was once at a hair salon and I picked up an issue of Star or OK!, something where there was an entire section called “Stars are just like us!” It featured pictures of different celebrities eating frozen yogurt and walking in the park with their children and buying shoes. I have no idea what amount of money you have to earn or what kind of project you have to do before you stop being a human and become a mythical celebrity unicorn; but, why would the amount of movies you have stared in or the number one songs you sing make you stop liking frozen yogurt or need shoes just because of other celebrities?
Let’s pretend that you’re walking in the grocery store and everyone around you takes out his or her phones to take your picture. Then some random guy with a video camera starts asking you about what you’re buying, your plans for the night and what you’ll be doing every day for the rest of your life. You leave thinking, “Well, that was weird.” But it doesn’t stop. People follow you around and bother you and generally won’t leave you alone. At this point, most people would try to get a restraining order. This happens every day to celebrities, and there is no way that it is fun.
Now that social media has become so popular, it allows people to feel popular and validated every day. With every comment on your status supporting your opinion or “like” on that hundredth “selfie,” we get to feel like the center of the universe for a little while. We get to be the celebrities of our little universe while competing with all of our other friends for the same small spotlight. This is kind of how it should be. I feel like that unless you have contributed to society in a way that impacts the whole of society in some way (either good or bad), it doesn’t really need to covered like an actual news story. Stories about Mark Ruffalo’s involvement with fracking awareness, the countless charities big Hollywood types are constantly supporting or even new movies and songs coming out featuring big name artists are something to be covered like actual news stories, not how many onesies Jessica Simpson bought for her baby or the preferred coffee drink of Michael Bay.
So, stop being creepy and leave these people alone. Let them do their business and let them buy their frozen yogurt in peace.