The idea of someone becoming a "celebrity" due to their status on the Internet is something that I find particularly interesting. I researched Forbes List of The Web Celeb 25 and decided to focus on the top two "Web Celebs" for this blog.
At the top of Forbes list we have a woman by the name of Jessica Lee Rose. She shot to online fame with her posts on YouTube under the name of LonelyGirl15. Originally it was thought that she was 16 year old girl name Bree. Later her videos were revealed as scripted, and her true identity of Jessica Rose a 19 year old actress was introduced. Some might wonder why people are still interested in her after she was revealed as a fake, but the answer is simple in America people love a scandal. This is apparent to any person who has ever looked at the cover of a tabloid magazine.
Our nation is fascinated with people and the intimate details of their lives. This leads me directly to the person that landed the second place spot on Forbes’s list, Perez Hilton. His real name is Mario Lavandeira, and he is "famous" for his Celebrity Gossip blog called PerezHitlon.com. I must admit that this was one of the three people I actually recognized when reading Forbes's list. While I do read his blog, and am often amused, I have begun to feel as though our nation cares more about the lives of celebrities then we do about anything else. The number of homeless, jobless individuals in our country right now is at an all time high and yet the biggest headlines we find are about which celebrity just bought another dog, or what celebrities are dating each other.
Not all of the Web Celebs on Forbes's list are famous for the same reasons as Jessica Rose and Perez Hilton; but it’s incredibly shocking that the two most famous online personalities that Forbes could find relate directly to America's fascination with all things celebrity.
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2 comments:
I think we do care more about celebrities than other more important issues. I think this is because we can compare their life to ours, or we can create a dream life through them. We can't always relate to homeless, jobless, or mentally insane people. We might waste time on celebrities but they sell, so media will always pump them up until society decides homeless people are more interesting.
The media portrays celebrity news because that is what the public is most interested in. It is kind of sad that our generation is more interested in Paris Hilton than Barack Obama. In the end, it does not matter what's best for the country but the media will cover what sells.
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