You see, we as journalists, have documented the activities of celebrities for decades, yet recently it seems that this way of reporting has gone to the extreme. We are told about the minutest of things that happen in a celebrites life: hair cuts, where they go out at night, who they're dating etc.
Yes, i agree with the fact that sometimes these stories that are published are of interest to us, for example Britney Spears going a bit a-wol and shaving all of her hair o
ff , or Kiefer Sutherland being sentanced to 48 days in prison for drink driving. But recently websites and blogs have been popping up all over the internet showing every single thing that happens to a celebrity.theskinnywebsite- documents celebrities (male and female) who have lost weight, who have gained weight, how they lost weight etc, etc. It is updated daily with many comments added within seconds of the posts being published.
The thing that surprises me about this site is how obsessed, picky and hurtful these comments can be. The people commenting never seem to be satisfied.
Take this recent post as an example, here is Reese Witherspoon- absolutely stunning yet the first comment reads, "Dumpy at best"- most women would kill for half a figure like that! These girls (and some lads) commenting are so fixated on becoming perfect and people having a 'perfect body'. When in reality there is no such thing!!
The reaction of a site like this is that girls see these beautiful women being constantly put down and penalised for gaining weight, they then see gaining weight as a bad thing....when we really know that this is a natural thing.
The main proportion of visitors to this website are teenage girls, who idolise many of the women posted on this site. As most of you know adolescents are (most of the time) very easily influenced. Sites like these give the impression that there is always something wrong, that no-one ever looks good enough, this has a negative effect on people. If they feel that even someone as beautiful as these women arn't good enough, how can they ever feel good enough too?? (This is another way an obsession with the way people look, what size they are, how much they weigh etc c
an develop.)Another website obsessed with the actions of celebrites is perezhilton.com. This site updates daily aswell posting 'stories' of what celebrities have been up to.
This site is very successful, (in fact it has gained Perez so much publicity he now has a gossip slot on Radio 1) yet when visiting the page today the first story I was greeted by was how Madonna went to dinner with Gwyneth Paltrow- does this really interest people? Or does this just show how people have become so obssessed with what celebs are doing they actually want to know this sort of information. It all seems a bit bizarre if you ask me.
These don't really appeal to me as real headlines. They're not breaking stories and quiet a lot of the time they're not even interesting stories, yet for some very odd reason people visit these sites everyday....looking, keeping up-to-date with the actions of their idols. Why is this? Surely knowing every single detail of someone's life who you don't even personally know is umm....a bit sad? Also it seems a bit ignorant to know every detail of Lindsay Lohan's antics in rehab, yet not know or care about the fact that thousands of people are dying from aids in Africa.
It seems a bit of an extreme thing to say but it's true, society has less interest in things like this...real things that effect a lot of people; instead they are more wrapped up in striving for a life they'll never acheive.
No comments:
Post a Comment