What’s in Name ? What’s in Fame ?

Just trying to figure things out on this sphere people call earth. The famous, the infamous and why we care way too much about them.

Aren’t they powerless like us, human like us, why do we look at them as superior beings ?

Aren’t they created by us ? Aren’t they powerless without us ?

Are celebrities important than an everyday person walking down the street ?

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Why are we crazy to run into A-listers, individuals we can instagram and then watch the likes roll in.

Why do we have this insatiable curiosity about their private lives ?

If not religion then this is what the society is clinging to for 24/7.

Why have we become such shameless star chasers ?

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There was a time when pictures splashed in all magazines and social Media when some sleazy shutterbug gets unattractive or explicit shots of a celebrity. But now the celebrities they themselves do it for attention. Major problems in society are not as vibrant as the latest kardashian nude selfies in our world.

Celebrity worship has become such a psychological problem in society. It is no surprise that in ‘The university of Leicester’ a study has been done about the ‘celebrity worship’ and the psychologists even have a name for it ‘celebrity worship syndrome.’

In our celebrity crazed culture it’s not surprising that people go crazy for memorabilia. They are enthusiastic to pay hugely in auctions to just own an item that their favourite celebrity used, such as their napkin or even a spoon and we have seen cases were Muhammad ali’s boxing gloves won an auction bid for $1.1million, Mark McGwire 70th home run ball for $3million.

Companies know this about us and are cashing in on it. Think of all celebrity endorsed products there are right from Perfumes to condoms. There is a huge thriving industry selling us the dirt on celebrities ‘people magazine’ has an audience of 46million readers. More frightening is that a lot of people spending their time and money reading about people they don’t even know or seen in their lifetime.

Why do we give this god like stature to an ordinary mortals like us ? We put them so high on a pedestal that if they fall, they fall hard and in the limelight. And this, of course, is more fodder for the gossip junkies. It almost seems like we take pleasure in their misfortune or mistake. Even though we speak about moral ethics we cannot help but gawk at every detail of their fall. We react as if they have let us down personally, as if they somehow obliged it to us to remain perfect. They owe us nothing. They are business people and that is all. If they have a movie or a product to endorse or to sell us, it is up to us to buy it or not. This does not give us the right to peer into their personal lives, who they sleep with, how much weight they have gained, how many dates they have had or how their marriages are going. The transaction is completed when we buy their goods.

The worst thing of all is that when a celebrity buoy up his/her followers to donate to a charity, one could not help but wonder ‘what will the celebrity be doing with the colossal amount of money they earn ? Why do they buoy up their followers to donate when they can single handily donate the entire sum of certain charity requirement ?

Don’t we have much better things to think about than spending a huge amount of time to just know about someone whom we have not even met in our life ?

We are living in an epoch of mass communication and instant information gratification. We can use all the wonderful social networking tools to connect with real people, advance understanding between people to form an intellectual society that could potentially result us a peaceful world, and even share information that others can build on. The era we live in has lot of possibilities to connect with people all around the ecosphere thus eliminating the religion, caste, borders (with which they divide people in the name of patriotism) and share the wisdom that is required to form a healthy society.  It is left to us to choose whether to just sit and gossip or use it helpfully.

Even I love the works of some directors, actors, musicians and skills of certain sports personalities. But there is a difference between appreciating the work of someone and being personally obsessed with them.

Let’s not overlook the fact that celebrities are just people too. People crammed up very nicely, but people are all the same. They do have ups and downs, fears and joys, challenges and loneliness in their lives as the rest of us. We can appreciate them when they entertain us, for that is their job, and then get on with our own lives. Let us stop gawking or gossiping on these so called celebrities that ‘We’ created and start spending our time on doing things that would make us happy. And forget not to spend some time on society in which we live, which many of us consider boring. . boring.