Katelyn Robertson-Trend: Celebrity Obsession

by Katelyn Robertson

For my trend presentation, I chose the painstakingly obvious trend of obsession with celebrities. Although some sources tend to agree the obsession began back in the 1960s with the British invasion and the appearance of Elvis’ hips onto the pop culture scene. However, within about the past five years, this trend has rapidly increased, reaching mind-blowing numbers of followers.

With websites such as Perez Hilton’s blog, and television shows like TMZ, it is becoming increasingly simple to find what your favorite celebrity is doing at any particular moment. Whether it is raising money for a charitable cause, or picking up after their dog, the paparazzi seems to have no shame in making it known to the public. Although it would be easy to blame the paparazzi, they would not be publishing these shots if people were not looking at them. So who are these fanatics?

The majority of viewers of gossip websites, as well as television shows, are female. They tend to fall between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four, and have at least some college education and well-paying jobs.

According to Garrett Holmes, senior public affairs research analyst at MGT of America, “These gossip sites are attracting a mass number of young people at an alarming rate.” In fact, he goes on to say that “about thirty-eight percent of young adults ages 18-34 use these gossip sites as a supplement for hard news.”

So why is this obsession a problem? When you take people at an age when they are attempting to figure out who they are and where they fit in and bombard them with pictures of celebrities, it is easy for them to feel a false sense of companionship with these people. Add in the number of reality shows that follow every aspect of a person’s life, and it becomes even harder to distinguish real life from “reality” life. When these young adults feel that the celebrities have very similar lives as their own, they begin to view them as a friend; someone they want to keep in touch with and do the same things as. However, with so many pictures of celebrities walking their dogs and jogging, it is typically easy to forget that they are living lives that are exponentially different than those most of us will ever lead.

When even younger people are exposed to this celebrity fever, it becomes almost a standard for life. It becomes critical to be skinny like the celebrities, or carry the thousand dollar handbag a favorite celebrity owns. This not only blurs reality for these children, but also begins to shape their dreams and goals for the future. When I was younger, I wanted to save the rainforest. Ask the average 4th grade girl what they want to be when they grow up and you are more likely to get an answer like “I want to be Hannah Montana.”