So. Unless you've been living in a cave, you know by now that Tiger Woods got into a car accident on Friday morning. A media frenzy followed, fueled by a rumor of Tiger's infidelity and his silence over the whole thing. Today, he announced that he wouldn't play in his own golf tournament.
Talking heads proclaim that the public is due an explanation, and that the story simply isn't going to go away without a public accounting of who (Tiger) had done what (or whom, as it were implied).
No, this post isn't about Tiger, his accident, alleged affair, or whatnot. I don't care about that - but what is interesting to me is why people care about such matters. If you follow this kind of news, let me ask you: what is it about celebrities that capture your fancy? What is so interesting about Jon and Kate, or Brad and Angelina or whomever.
Jaye L. Derrick and Shira Gabriel of the Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, SUNY, published a study that "connections" to celebrities or parasocial relationships, allow people with low self-esteem to view themselves more positively:
The current research demonstrates that parasocial relationships can have self-enhancing benefits for low self-esteem people that they do not receive in real relationships. These parasocial relationships, which have very low risk of rejection, offer low self-esteem people an opportunity to reduce their self-discrepancies and feel closer to their ideal selves.
“Even ‘fake’ relationships with celebrities, relationships without any actual contact, can have benefits for the self,” the authors conclude. “We found that parasocial relationships can sometimes have benefits for people with low-self esteem that ‘real’ relationships do not.”
Or is it genetics? Duke University Medical Center neurobiologist Michael Platt found that adult rhesus macaque monkeys would pay (by giving up their favorite drink, Juicy Juice cheery juice) to look at images of dominant "celebrity" monkey of their pack.
So here's my question to you again: What's so captivating about celebrities?
(Photo: Jim Epler [Flickr])
They followers are jealous because these others lead what they see as "too good a life" and want to see them as less than perfect, just like themselves. Through their failures and misfortunes, they identify (or vilify) the famous person in the way they want. This makes the viewer more content.
Others just are fascinated with the whole celeb thing like they are fascinated with gossiping amongst their friends/coworkers.
So when things like this happen, they feel concern (or elation) for the celebrity's situation.
"TIGER'S NOT A LION CHEETAH BUT HIS WIFE STILL WENT APE"
@Church: You sir, earn a rofl! Well played.
The media is just doing what they do. If anyone is acting shifty in this, it's the cops, saying they just want to talk to him, when clearly they are looking for any charges they can come up with.
As far as I'm concerned, if they say he wasn't drunk and he pays for the damages, I don't see where the problem is.
With the advent of 24/7 news reporting, news networks found out something alarming: there actually isn't enough news to report on. So events that would have been relegated to the trivia section a decade or so ago are now Top Stories with Breaking News Flashes and In Depth Coverage and Detailed Analysis.
Sheesh.
Slow news day -- 24 hours of news coverage. The talking heads cannot just go away until something happens. They have to find something to report and do it fast (facts be damned) before the other networks find something else more sexy to report.
HAhaha. +1 :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv2qLOiioPc
Where were these "talking heads" when the last Republican Vice-President shot an octagenarian POINT-BLANK in the FACE with a shotgun?
care-o-meter is at an all-time low.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/11/30-7
!elbakrameR® -111 internets for trying waaaay too hard to find a way to bring the Bush administration into something that has absolutely nothing at all whatsoever with politics...and failing to to it well
Now, not everyone you want to talk to knows each other. The girl you work with doesn't know your cousin, so your cousin having an affair isn't good gossip anymore. Your waitress doesn't know the mother of the child in your kid's dance class that might be pregnant. Your sister doesn't know your friend that's going to have to go rehab. But they all "know" Angelina Jolie and Tiger Woods.
The gossip is the same gossip it's always been. It's as important and fascinating as it's always been. It's just moved from local people to nationally known figures. The town tramp isn't Mrs. Johnson anymore, it's Paris Hilton. The town drunk isn't Mr.Brown anymore, it's Amy Winehouse.
Nothing! they are boring!
Except the celebreties of my region, why? because they show actual interesting and unique dramatic art talent and even when its not their job! But even so, i would never care about their pictures or their lives anyway.
As for other people, i do not know, are their brain that pathetic?
sticking strictly to dvd's, hulu and mp3's keeps me pretty sheltered and my closest coworkers don't usually gossip about this tripe either.
work, play, sleep!