Television, Television

Alright. I think that Miriam gave pretty much my view on the Heath Ledger topic. I added a little in my comment but I think that I have found the root of the problem. Television. So, this whole example started out as news on CNN, a TV channel. Look at all of the shows devoted to the lives of celebrities, Extra and Access Hollywood, as a few examples. I know that these shows are on way too often and that they expose gossip about celebrities. That is about all of the contact I have chosen to have with them. TV stations have prime time spots, Thursday and Friday nights from six o'clock to about nine are considered major slots. Extra is on every weekday at seven. How much crap can you have to say about such a small group of people? Extra's site is insane, take a look, you will agree. This is the most obvious connection between celebrities and our daily lives but what most people don't see is that they sneak into our lives through the back doors and crawlspaces of our minds and they have been doing it since we were children. The shows that we don't see as celebrity related are probably the biggest threats to keeping our lives Britney-free. There are shows that are made to create new celebrities, there are shows that are devoted to talking to celebrites, there are reality shows about former celebrities' lives, there are celebrity match-maker shows, on and on and on. When I come to think about it I don't know of more than a few channels that are out of the loop. Cartoon Network was sinless for a while, seeing as it was all animated, but even it is now following the path towards creating baby stars. No station is safe anymore. Between the shows of Jay Leno and Conan O'Brian I think that nearly every star has been on at least once in his or her lifetime. These shows set up false images of the people who appear on them. They not only make the celebrities seem like real people (we all know that they are robots) but the shows also create a feeling of closeness and friendship with the celebs. This false relationship is devastating to a person's social life. We take an interest in people who are not really there, we care more about who JLo is dating than about our best friend's new boy. This problem is not just among adults; it has spread into a much younger population. Disney is to blame! Because of new teen sensations like Raven, Miley Cyrus (whose real name is Destiny Hope), and Ashley Tisdale, young girls all across the nation have been hit with celeb fever. Just the other day I heard a young girl say "Mommy can I have a nose job, too?" Isn't that just sad? We have been infected and nobody knows. Is there a cure to the mania? Will there ever be an end? Salvation comes in small doses everyday. It's called literature.