Ashley Haynes
ENG 1020
Jared Grogan
When you open a magazine, the internet, turn on the television, and even
drive, the stories of their heartbreak, love, and style are always right under your
nose. Addiction: what is the first thing that you think of when you hear that word?
Drugs, alcohol, food, and maybe even addiction to exercise? Well, some people
may be addicted to celebrities. Can you go a day without looking or hearing about
celebrity gossip? I am sure that you cannot. The people that read about celebrities
so often may have an addiction to celebrities and their lives. There are a number of
social causes and consequences of celebrity addiction and what causes an
addiction to celebrities is that they are always in your face and so highly
publicized all the time. Addiction is the fact or condition of being addicted to a
particular substance, thing, or activity and that “thing” can be celebrities.
Doctors have their own definition of addiction, which is a persistent,
compulsive dependence on a behavior or substance. Addiction has been partially
replaced by the word dependence for substance abuse. Addiction has been
extended, to include mood-altering behaviors or activities (Farlex). In a book
called Fame Junkies: The Hidden Truths Behind America's Favorite Addiction by
Jake Halpern, there was a research done by Halpern to 653 middle-school students
in Rochester, New York. If kids were given the choice of becoming a Navy Seal,
CEO of a major corporation, President of Yale or Harvard, or an assistant to a
famous movie star or singer, 43.3% of the girls would choose the assistant job
Ashley Haynes
ENG 1020
Jared Grogan
(Donahue). That is almost half of the girls who took the survey! Also, teens who
regularly watch celebrity television shows, are likely to believe that they have a
chance at getting famous (Donahue). It is crazy that televisions shows influence
kids these days.
People are addicted to celebrities because honestly, their drama and stories
are everywhere. But why exactly are we addicted to celebrities? According to
Charlotte De Backer, there are three reasons as to why people are addicted to
celebrities. The first being that it makes us happy and reading those stories lights
up our brain cells in a positive way and this is called “The Biological Basis”. The
second is called “Social Reasons”, meaning that celebrity gossip is more safe than
office gossip. We can talk all the crap we want about celebrities because it is never
going to be relayed back to them. The final and third reason is called
“Evolutionary Explanation” meaning that gossiping makes us live longer and have
healthier lives (Pawlik-Kienlin). Also, Sarah Horrocks writes that there are six
reasons as to why we are addicted to celebrities. The first is that we love to see
how celebrities live and then we wish one day that could be us living in beautiful
homes with perfect teeth. Second, is because we look to them as role models. They
know about all of the trends before they happen and they always have the most
inspiring stories. Third, they make us feel a whole lot better about ourselves. Can
you imagine seeing your breakup on the cover of magazines and all over the
Ashley Haynes
ENG 1020
Jared Grogan
internet? Fourth, celebrities are an amazing talking point. They are easy to bring
up in conversation and a good icebreaker. Fifth, we’re only human and we are
curious as to what people are doing all the time. Hearing about what celebrities are
buying, eating, and wearing is exciting because it makes them seem like us
(Horrocks). Lastly, it’s everyone’s guilty pleasure. Flipping through a magazine is
easy and you can hear all about someone’s dirty laundry in just minutes. Our
addiction to celebrities is like a rollercoaster. They make us happy, sad, relieved,
and lots of other feelings.
Addiction to celebrities, or would we call it stalking? To reiterate, addiction
is, the fact or condition of being addicted to a particular substance, thing, or
activity and that “thing” can be celebrities. Stalking which is unwanted and
obsessive attention by an individual or group to another person. This behavior is
related to harassment and intimidation. We may be addicted to celebrities but we
may pass that point and begin to stalk them. The people who are absolutely
addicted to one celebrity may go farther than they should and visit this person’s
home and follow them everywhere they may go. For example, in 1980, Mark
David Chapman traveled to New York City and waited outside of John Lennon’s
apartment building, when John Lennon got there he autographed something for
Chapman and then walked away. Then Chapman shot Lennon multiple times in
the back and John Lennon was then dead (Investigation Discovery). There are
Ashley Haynes
ENG 1020
Jared Grogan
multiple people who are stalking celebrities and go through ridiculous lengths to
do so. Another celebrity stalker is Dawnette Knight. Knight was stalking Michael
Douglas and claimed she was in love with him. She threatened Michael Douglas’s
wife Catherine Zeta-Jones saying she would cut her body up into pieces and feed it
to dogs (Investigation Discovery). People go through great lengths to tell these
celebrities what they want. According to John Maltby, who studies “Celebrity
Worship Syndrome” says that there are three different types of worshiping. The
first, being Entertainment-social, which is when you talk and like to hear about
celebrities when you are with a group of friends. The second, Intense-personal,
when you claim you share a bond with your favorite celebrity. Third, Borderlinepathological, when you think that if you were in any help your favorite celebrity
would come and help you. People become addicted to celebrities and then take it a
little too far and actually think they are friends with that celebrity or will actually
have a chance of being with them (Wikipedia).
I am addicted to celebrity gossip. I think that celebrities do indeed have the
best hair and style but I think that’s obvious because they have the best stylists.
I’m not a stalker but I do admire and look up to them. I am also addicted and very
guilty to hearing about what is going on in a celebrity’s life. Every morning, I
have to get in my car by exactly 8:30 because if not I miss Shannon’s Dirty On
The 30 on Channel 95.5 Mojo In The Morning. I miss the whole 5 minutes of
Ashley Haynes
ENG 1020
Jared Grogan
celebrity gossip and I feel like my entire day is ruined and I will not listen Mojo in
the morning, I plug in my iPod and drive to school.
My addiction may seem pretty pathetic but not as pathetic as the girl I went
to high school with who completely stalks celebrities. She started off being
completely obsessed with The Jonas Brothers around 2008 and I remember this
because she was known as “Jonas Girl” in high school. She literally went to every
concert, defended them constantly, and talked about them like they were her
friends. It started off with loving their music and turned into her completely
obsessing over their every move. She would talk about them like they were friends
saying “Joe Jonas did this…” and people thought she was crazy. She would talk
about them constantly and she would always have a story about them that related
to the topic you were talking about. She graduated high school, got a Jonas
Brothers and Miley Cyrus tattoo, and another Jonas Brother’s tattoo and she then
moved onto Big Time Rush. Big Time Rush is a Nickelodeon television show and
a “band”. I looked farther into this girls Facebook page one day, and she is
completely obsessed with this group of boys. Someone she knows made a fake
Facebook for her so she could say she was dating one of the boys from Big Time
Rush and she basically follows this band everywhere they tour and thinks she has
a chance with dating one of these boys. She stalks celebrities at hotels and finds
Ashley Haynes
ENG 1020
Jared Grogan
them at airports. This girl is very strange and has a lot of issues and I would label
her as a stalker.
There is a fine line between being addicted and stalking. I mean I would
love it if Johnny Depp would become a U.S. Citizen again and ditch his girlfriend
of 12 years and marry me, but we all know that it is not going to happen. Some
people need a reality check and they need to grow up because there are so many
things you are missing out on if you’re too busy stalking celebrities who don’t
even know you exist when they claim they “love” their fans.
Celebrities have a big impact on people’s lives whether it being positive or
negative. Some people may take it too far to the point of stalking such as the girl
that I know and some may be closet obsessed fans, like myself. One thing is for
sure; we can thank websites, television, and magazines for getting the celebrity
dirt out there and feeding our addiction to those “things” that we call celebrities.
Ashley Haynes
ENG 1020
Jared Grogan
Annotated Bibliography
1.
Pawlik-Kienlen, Laurie. "Addicted To Celebrity Gossip." http://l-pawlikkienlen.suite101.com. December 10, 2007, n.d. Web. 5 Mar 2012.
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen reports on why people are addicted to celebrity gossip.
There are three reasons according to Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen on why
people are addicted to celebrity gossip. The first is because of “The
Biological Basis”. According to Dr. Charlotte De Backer, people are
addicted because it “lights up readers brain cells in a positive way”
because it makes us happy. The second is for “Social Reasons”. Celebrity
gossip is more safe than office gossip. We can talk all the crap we want
about celebrities because they may never hear what we have to say.
Finally, the third reason is “Evolutionary Explanation” because gossiping
about something supposedly makes us live longer and we will have
healthier lives. “Women who were better at gossiping were better at
surviving”.
2.
Young, Sherry. " Addiction to celebrities simply isn't healthy." deseretnews.com.
N.p., 2009. Web. 5 Mar 2012.
Sherry Young reports on why our addiction to celebrities is not healthy. Dishing
gossip on celebrities is easy because we can’t get in trouble for it like we
would when we gossip about friends. She then brings in a social scientist
S. Mark Young who talks about how we view celebrities as role-models
and that may be dangerous for young people due to the fact that lots of
celebrities mess up. Celebrities make us feel better about ourselves
because when they mess something up it is publicized.
Ashley Haynes
ENG 1020
Jared Grogan
#3
Neal, John. "Jane Velez-Mitchell talks addiction to celebrity."
thecelebritycafe.com. N.p., 2011. Web. 5 Mar 2012.
John Neal from celebritycafe.com interviews Jane Velez-Mitchell on what she
knows about peoples addictions to celebrities. Lots of people have
addictions like ones to drugs, alcohol, and some to celebrities. According
to Jane Velez-Mitchell, there are two types of addictions, the first is
consumption, which is when you are addicted to alcohol, drugs, smoking
etc. and the second is behavorial addictions are porn, gambling, and
celebrities. Lot’s of people admire celebrities but a lot of people cross the
line and end up being labeled as a stalker. When a celebrity does
something is frowned upon to the public, we get a rush knowing that they
are in trouble because we are so addicted.
#4
Horrocks, Sarah. "Why are we addicted to celebrity magazines?."
http://www.sofeminine.co.uk. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar 2012.
According to Sarah Horrocks who is from the UK, there are around 6 reasons why
we are addicted to celebrities. The first is that “We can dream!”, we love
to look at how celebrities live wishing that it could one day be us living
in a beautiful home and having perfect teeth and clothes all the time.
Second is because we look up to them as “role models”. They know all
the trends and have all the stuff that we want so we look up to them for
that. Third is “Reassurance”, they make us feel a whole lot better about
ourselves. Celebrities every move is publicized and when they mess up,
we feel better because it’s not us. Fourth is “Talking Points” because
celebrity gossip is a good conversation starter. Fifth, “It’s Only Human”,
as humans we’re curious about everything that’s going on and well it’s
harmless when we gossip about celebrities. Lastly, it’s everyone’s “guilty
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Jared Grogan
pleasure”, flipping through a magazine is easy and cheap and you get to
learn about whoever in just a few minutes.
#5
"Celebrity Gossip Addiction." ktla.com. N.p., 2010. Web. 5 Mar 2012.
This article is about how people think of celebrities as their “friends”, so to speak.
We talk about social networking sites and how celebrities post stuff on
their throughout the day and we constantly say “Ashton Kutcher said...”
or something along those lines, like we actually know them. We use
websites now to see what exactly our favorite celebrities are up too.
#6
McCann, Emil. "True Life: I'm addicted to celebrity gossip." dartnewsonline.com.
N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar 2012.
Emily McCann reports that the first step to addiction is recognizing you have a
problem and in this case, a lot of people may need to do. Celebrity gossip
makes our crazy lives seem relatively normal. We appreciate our own
family when we hear about how badly a celebrities family is. Celebrity
gossip overall makes us feel better about ourselves.
#7
Radnor, . "Celeberties and Their Influence." teenink.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar
2012.
<http://www.teenink.com/opinion/entertainment_celebrities/article/8234
2/Celebrities-and-Their-Influence/>.
This article is about how celebrities influence us to be skinnier, healthier, or dress
a little bit more trendy. We look up to celebrities because they always
have the best things. Children and teenagers learn a lot of things from
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Jared Grogan
endorsements in commercials, songs, and others because they are starting to have
a negative effect on kids.
8. Farlex, . "Addiction." Medical dictionary. The Free Dictionary by Farlex, 2011.
Web. 22 Mar 2012. <http://medicaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com/addiction>.
This page briefly gives examples of what the term addiction means in medical
terms.
9. "Celebrity Worship Syndrome." Wikipedia. N.p., 02 D. Web. 20 Mar 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_Worship_Syndrome>.
This source talks about the types of Celebrity Worship Syndrome (CWS). There
are three types, Entertainment-social which means that you admire a celebrity and
talk about them socially in a group of friends. Intense-personal, means that you
worship that celebrity and you think you have a special bond with them.
Borderline-pathological, means that if you were ever in trouble, you would think
that, that celebrity would come and help you.
10. "Top Ten Celebrity Stalkers." Investigation Discovery. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar
2012. <http://investigation.discovery.com/investigation/crimecountdowns/stalkers/stalkers.html>.
This source states that there is a top ten of celebrity stalkers. The first is Mark
David Chapman who went to John Lennon’s apartment, then shot and killed him.
The eighth person is Dawnette Knight, who stalked Michael Douglas and also
threatened his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones.
11. Donahue, Deirdre. "'Fame Junkies' is hooked on celebrity behavior ."
usatoday.com. N.p., 2007. Web. 22 Mar 2012.
Ashley Haynes
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Jared Grogan
Donahue reports about the book titles Fame Junkies which is about how people
are addicted to celebrities. How we have a weakness about hearing about
celebrities and how we always hear about it from the television and internet. She
also reports statistics from the book.