We are a culture obsessed with celebrities and gossip. We are more concerned with who is dating, who broke up, who got put in jail, who is pregnant than we are with what is going on around us in our communities and in the world. Sadly, the only thing that seems to capture our attention faster than celebrity gossip is a natural disaster.

The media have built up our desire for celebrity news. They use flashy one-liners and teasers to grab our attention. They blast the message from all angles that we need to know what celebrities are doing at all times. It is sad that we really care what celebrity made a trip to Starbucks and what they ordered while they were there. Is that really important? When is that information going to come in handy? It has no real meaning yet it makes headlines. The media has managed to turn the most mundane daily tasks that celebrities do into news. The paparazzi will take pictures of anything it doesn’t matter how boring and un-newsworthy it is. Even grocery shopping, if done by a celebrity, can be news. The media doesn’t stop at telling us that a celebrity went grocery shopping, they go the extra mile to inform us just what items the celebrity bought.

The media tells us we care, or we should care, what celebrities are up to. By placing so much emphasis on celebrities, we have told the public that this is what’s important. It’s hard to watch TV without being bombarded by commercials or news clips telling us what celebrities are up to and even what the media thinks the celebrities might be up to if they don’t have proof. Horrible crimes are committed everyday but instead of reporting on these, the headline is what celebrity was caught driving drunk. We care more for what celebrity is currently being held for possession of a drug than what kid at our local school is bringing drugs into the classroom.  

It is unfortunate that many people know more details of celebrities’ lives than they do even the members of their own family. For the majority of people, we will not come in contact with celebrities and if we do our encounters will be brief. Celebrities are not the “normal” people in our lives yet we care more about what they are doing than we care about the people we interact with everyday.