At what point does fanaticism turn into obsession? At what point does a society’s consumerist based culture turn into a fiendish pursuit of ‘things’ to fill a substance deficiency?

I think that our culture has passed the line for idolization of celebrities, and it’s becoming detrimental. It always been pointless and ridiculous but it has now become down right creepy and pathetic.

We see their lifestyles, there insane pay checks, their influence and access, their talent, and their beauty, and somewhere along the line they stop being like us, they stop being real, and they start being better.

Of course the images are photoshopped. Of course they have access to the best clothes, makeup artists, hair stylists, and any other procedure to make them as perfect as possible. Of course are consumerist culture is based off of buying thing and having things remain inaccessible and unattainable. The keyword here being things, not people. When you turn people into figures, literally numbers, you essentially start marketing human beings as a product or brand.

We have to sell perfection, because if celebrities where perceived as normal regular people then we would have only ourselves and our life experiences to shape what constitutes awe and wonderment. Unfortunately as of right now we have celebrities to fill that definition, but something about it just doesn’t quite fit, I think deep down in our subconscious something about our nature tells us this can lead to an unhealthy perspective. Which is why we need constant slaps in the face consisting of commercials, magazine ads and covers, media campaigns, music, TV, on a daily basis we’re assaulted with so many images and marketing attempts to draw our attention.

Another word for excess attention to something or someone is obsession. The definition of obsession is, a state in which someone thinks about someone or something constantly or frequently especially in a way that is not normal. Now I realize that in this day and age you don’t have to be a celebrity gossip fiend to know what goes on in a celebrity’s life. I remember when Solange had an altercation with Jay Z in the elevator and everyone was talking about it, because it was just considered news not an intrusion on someone’s personal life.

The ricochet effect of this is that we as a culture begin to be obsessed with highly unlikely, inaccessible, and most likely detrimental lifestyles of the rich and famous. The cultish following that actors, singers, athletes, talk show hosts, socialites and etc. acquire usually consists of young kids. You the crazy girls that threatened to kill Selena Gomez because they’re “fans” of Justin Bieber, or the “bros” that attend Odd Future and Sad Boys concerts.

There’s nothing wrong with admiring a performers talent and being a fan girl or fan boy. But there’s something to be aid for a generation that sees celebrities as their gods, could it be that there’s a lack of real leaders to look up too in today’s world? In a way yes there is, but its not that actual leaders don’t exist and aren’t influential, its just that they’re not shown in way that people feel compelled to adore them.

Try and name a man or woman that is smart, kind, and extremely attractive, that is well known, influential, and not a musician, actor, athlete, socialite, or married to one. It gets extremely difficult when you focus on just woman. Try and name a woman that is considered extremely beautiful, kind, smart, and all the other good stud, that isn’t am actress, musician, porn star, or athlete. You may be able but its clearly a very small pool of people to choose from that are in the public eye. That’s a problem.

So this is actually a thing, its called celebrity Worship Syndrome and psychologically speaking, it can cause people to behave and commit actions that are deplorable. I’m not talking about those annoying girls that emulate and dress like Ariana Grande, I mean James Holmes, the mass murderer emulating the Joker that shot over 80 people and killed 12 in the Aurora movie theatre shooting.

We have a responsibility to the future generation to nip this celebrity obsession in the bud and call it what it is, an unhealthy preoccupation of our culture that is meant to fill the void from the lack of substance in our lives. That means coming face to face with our consumerism based culture and economy and determining if there’s a limit to it, to determine whether its okay to market human beings as objects.