Visit the social media profile of any young girl or boy, and you'll be sure to see that one of their Facebook Likes or Twitter Followers is a celebrity, be it a musician, actor, model or some other famous person.
Liking a famous person in itself is not inherently bad, but obsession over what Kim Kardashian is wearing, or who Ryan Reynolds is dating etc has become a very big obsession for many youngsters, even grown-ups. Never before has celebrity gossip been so popular, and nevr before has there been so much interest in the private lives of celebrities. At a particular period in my life, I was caught up in this whole 'celebrity mania', and that was at the expense of more useful information that could prove to be very useful.
It is difficult to place the blame on any particular person for this surge in in celebrity mania. On one hand, you have the media outlets who in the true spirit of capitalism, would do just about anything to return value to their shareholders, one another hand, you have the internet which came to make life easier for us and has given a voice to so many, and yet on the other hand, you have the readers who are being misled into thinking that celebrity gist adds any value to anybody's life.
You just need to see some of the headlines of any 'celeb-focused' publication: 'Omotola caught sun bathing', 'Ini Edo poses naked for photoshoot', 'Jay-Z caught f***ering Beyoncé in public'...and all that sort of irrelevant headlines.
And of course, we sometimes think the celebrities are overwhelming benefactors of this madness. True to a certain extent, because it only makes sense that the more you are on the front pages, you become a household name and the more movie roles or album sales, or more modelling contracts etc
But the sad side of the story is that all this comes at the cost of the person's personal freedom and privacy; and at the expense of society's sanity.
The effects of this celebrity culture on society have been profound. Some sociologists believe that society's obsession with celebrities is detrimental to the success of democracy (mostly in developed countries), arguing that celebrity news always trumps political or other 'hard' news stories, which prevents the developement of an informed citizenery who can vote for leaders who can make the right decisions, and "demagoguery which depends on mass ignorance".
This argument is particularly true when you consider the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as governer of the American State of California. The decision turned out to be a bad one in many respects. Another case in point is the election campaigns of Barack Obama and the number of celebrities who came out to endorse, support and donate money to his campaign...from Oprah to Ellen Degeneres.
Most of these celebrities are people with a huge fan base, usually of hardcore fans who worship and idolize them; so if Oprah says it's Obama, her fans automatically go to the polls to vote Obama without taking into consideration his policies or plans for the nation. That probably explains the level of frustration with Obama's term of office, because the army of celebrities made him seem like a demi-god, or The Messiah come to take away the troubles of America.
To top it all, many of these celebrities are simply bad influences on young people and on cultural values. Take for example Lady Gaga's song "Judas" which openly attacks christianity, or the open nudity which they often propagate in their music videos, or the explicite sex scenes in their movies. What do all these teach the younger generation?
After the leaked sex tape of Kim Kardashian that shot she and her family to fame, the 'leaking' of sex tapes soared off the roof, as everyone was now coarageous enough to sacrifice their dignity for their own 15 minutes of fame. Some reporters and paparazzi are now prepared to break the law as long as they can get a store or a picture.
Here's my take: The celebrity culture is itself 'not that bad', take for example Omotola Jalade of Nigeria who has used her fame and influence to change mind sets about teenage marriage in Nigeria. In fact, she was pretty vocal in her criticism when a bill was introduced to the Nigerian Senate to legalize it. Now also look at the work which other celebrities are like Angelina Jolie are doing in Africa, not forgetting the #BringBackOurGirls movement spearheaded by celebrities (though it has had little or no effect so far).
But other celebrities promote exactly the wrong message. A good example is Cameroonian singer Dencia who promotes an aggressive skin lightening product which some health experts say could cause harm to women. If we could find a balance, it would be such do so much good. And if celebrities became the role models they are expected to be to their fans, it would be even better.
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