Gods, Aliens or Others?

...which of the above applies to what celebrities are in our lives?

(NTUSU Tribune ~ Features ~ March '10)

While we worry about alien invasions and make horror movies about them (think Mars Attacks!), more impactful invasions take place everyday- Celebrity Invasions. Celebrities dominate our lives. They dictate what we wear, how we talk and what we talk about. They’re the reason we bond with people, the topic of conversation when we meet friends over lunch or run into them in the washroom. In fact there’s even a disease termed Celebrity Worship Syndrome, or CWS, in which a person becomes “overly involved with the details of a celebrity’s personal life”!

A few days back Sachin Tendulkar (a very, very famous Indian cricketer) scored a double century in a one-day international, probably the ultimate feat for cricket enthusiasts. My Facebook newsfeed contained only Sachin’s mention; a friend’s status message read, “if you don’t know who Sachin Tendulkar is, I think it’s time u say bye bye to this world” (I kid you not). People were joining groups and basically celebrating that they were alive to witness this mean feat. The thing is that I was one of the few who wasn’t following the game and so was left feeling disconnected from everyone else. I felt none of the joy, pride or sense of achievement that everybody else felt. So essentially all that did for me was to exclude me from all social conversation and keep me off Facebook for a good 24 hours. I guess what I am getting at is that your celebrity following is a determining factor in your social life. Although an example from cricket has been used to illustrate the point, the same is true of a Manchester United match, a Federer game, a Christiano Ronaldo goal or a Lady Gaga red carpet ensemble!

As an experiment just walk along a row of girls rooms in any hall in NTU and count the number of gladiator sandals you see. Various Hollywood celebrities and supermodels such as Kate Moss started the Gladiator trend a little over three years ago and it’s impossible to go a day without seeing one of them! It’s ridiculous but I have a neighbour who has five (yes, five) pairs. When I asked her about them she gave me this what’s-wrong-with-you look and simply said- “They’re in fashion”. I suppose she thought that explained it all. Besides I’m no one to judge, being guilty of owning a pair myself!

While a lot has been said about the negative impact of celebrities on our lives, the truth is that there are two sides to this coin like every other. Celebrities inspire us in ways that others cannot and make us reflect on things we’d rather ignore. When Oprah shares her struggles with her weight and how she managed to lose 20-30 pounds, we decide that we can do it as well. Suddenly, we’re exercising daily and eating healthy (at least for while) because if she can do it, so can we. Britney Spears is taken to hospital and examined for bipolar disorder. That gets us worried about our own depression and instigates a period of reflection, which would otherwise not have occurred.

That celebrities have an impact on lives is inarguable- whether we do things because they do it, or refuse to do things because they do it. However, their impact need not be entirely negative. Like everything else, it is up to us to control the ways in which they influence our lives; they can be either Gods, Aliens or others.