A Life Without Celebrities

Aren't you all just so excited by this new series of posts that I'm going to do? Well it's yet to be seen whether or not they are going to be any good but I'll have a stab at them and see where it takes me - or us (profound huh?). The first is a constant subject of conversation amongst just about every group of people - celebrities. How different would our lives be without constant speculation and news about the same people, about the same stuff? When you watch 'celebrity' versions of game shows and see the people that the production teams have chosen, you really have to wonder if one person's idea of a celebrity is the same as the next's. The stock lines that I hear when a program comes on is 'who are they' or 'what have they done to make them a 'celebrity'? It often makes me laugh (as I'm sure it does you as well) when you compare yourself to those famous people. What have they got that we don't have? What do they bring to the world that is so much better than we can? I certainly believe that we could live without them in our own lives but still I think I might be in the minority with this, my first 'life without...' post.

This idea really struck me a week back when I was watching the Masters golf on the TV. I go to the Open Championship every year that it is in Scotland (usually every 2nd year) so I've seen all of the golfers in the flesh. I can still remember the first one I ever went to many years ago at Muirfield. It was a pretty horrible day weather wise but it was also one of the best days of my childhood. I got to see all of the big golfing stars (from the TV as it was then) and got within touching distance of Tiger Woods - you can imagine how awesome this would have been for me. Even today I still get excited when I see who's coming to the tee or green that I'm sitting at because it's pretty cool to see them in the flesh. The thing is that I don't quite understand the big deal, even though I'm a sucker myself for seeing a celebrity in person. The TV, as far as I know, doesn't lie and they always tend to look just like they did the day before when you watched their previous round. It occurred to me when I was watching the Masters that I don't (now) enjoy seeing them because of their celebrity status; I enjoy seeing them because they are the best golfers. It is for this reason why I don't really care that Tiger Woods got himself into some personal mess - he's still a great golfer and I really would prefer to watch him do that than read about where he has been hitting his driver (if you know what I mean).

Magazines like OK and Hello! are lost on me. Occasionally I'll have a look over my Mum's shoulder when she is reading one of them (or the like) and it amazes me that people actually spend money on and read that kind of thing. I don't care that someone has had a boob-job or that their dog has a gambling problem - it's the most dull stuff in the world and even after a glance I can feel a part of my brain turn to mush. The only people that I enjoy reading about are the ones that have something interesting to say or that have had something interesting happen to them. The number of so called 'celebrities' that don't have either could easily outweigh the ones that have. In fact it turns out that reading about 'normal' folk is a lot more interesting - you should try it some time all of you gossip mag lovers.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that people have to be famous for a reason. The idea of celebrity for me isn't a movie star or a popular TV star; it's a person who has made their name off of the back of something like Big Brother. It is for this reason why I think that a life without celebrities wouldn't actually be all that bad. In fact, it might just give some people that are worth reading about and talking about more of a chance to shine.

As I said last week in the intro post for this series, I am looking for people to say what they think about the topic. Please take 5 minutes to leave a short comment at the bottom (anonymously or not!) and let's see if we can spark a little debate on the subject.

Thanks for reading,

Martin