Worship me

“You can watch a little bit of war from our nice living room, 30 seconds of what’s going on in Syria, and when you’ve had enough, switch over to some celebrity program. We live our lives through screens and images, in this way, we don’t know what’s real or fake anymore, it does not matter.” Said Alison Jackson, the multi-award English photographer more than 20 years ago. In a way, this is a true representation of what going on for decades. Gone are the days of flipping channels and buying magazines, but now, everything your heart’s desire is at your fingertips, what a wonderful time to be alive right?

THE CELEBRITY MIRAGE

For media companies, it’s important to keep any kind of celebrity in "Vogue” (no pun intended) all the time. They need to keep the public up to date on every move they made. It’s not important if they go through a total make over or an outrageous D.U.I. Their main goal is to keep their names ringing in the public’s head all the time, it’s a simple but effective way to stay active in everyday conversation, just for that, their advertising agencies or associates spend a lot of resources.

Boredom as a Tool

In our daily lives, we have been exposed to the over saturation of non-relevant information since childhood; the media will put so much effort to make that information somewhat "relevant." There’s no escape from it; on every classroom, social media, news program, magazines, pop-up adds. That story will be covered, fueling the fire of curiosity or plain gossiping (whatever suits your fancy). For a bored costumer waiting in line for a cashier at a supermarket, the story of Kate Hudson late night cravings or Meghan Markel’s family mysteries become the perfect bait for a rambling mind trying to find a quick fix to boredom.

The Cult of Personality in the Era of Technology.

What kind of harm this interest in another person life’s does to your wellbeing? The answer lies inside the cult of personality. We are by nature, social beings. The media puts so much emphasis on celebrities lives that the population seems to have the need to broadcast their own. Some of them post every move they make with extreme accuracy, in a shallow attempt to show their daily lives as if they were just another celebrity on the loose. On Social Media, some users will follow them by default, just because someone is exposing their "Picture perfect" lives on cyberspace, for me, that not enough to become a celebrity. This is where the cult of personality takes charge, ready to fill those empty spaces with an illusory sense of accomplishment, being a celebrity is a well celebrated archetype.

This revolves around this sneaky paradigm; to be loved, we need to focus only on one part and discard the rest. While doing some research, I came across a very interesting quote by Henri J.M. Nouwen.

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our lives is not success, popularity or power but self-rejection. Success, popularity and power present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable. Then success, popularity and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap however is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone or abandoned, I find myself thinking” well… that proves once more that I am a nobody” … [my darker side says] I am no good… I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected and abandoned.”

“Henri Nouwen and the Trap of Self-Rejection.” July 26, 2016.

We reject essential parts of our personality, just to show a “cleaner” or “healthier” version of ourselves to others online.

Who’s to blame?

Without any doubt, the media is guilty for exposing people’s personal life in that absurd and obtuse way. They have conditioned today’s youth to focus on people’s personal life, Media is putting a mammoth effort on teaching us how to be open on everything we do. It’s the media dogma that pushes the population to convey and support their message of openness. If by any chance, you’re not riding that wave of sharing personal information as a common rule, you can be classified as ‘weird,” and be left aside, ready to be wash away by a ravening stampede of post notifications.

It’s More than a Personal Choice.

We got the media exposing every detail, bringing to life stories with or without any substance, just for the sake of keeping the illusion alive in our minds. I remember an interview that I heard on a podcast maybe a month ago. The interviewed, (a once famous musician from the late 70s) complained about the fact that in the 80s and 90s, people will be asking for your autograph to have something from you. Now, they just want to take a selfie, why? Because they want to promote themselves. It’s not about the artist anymore, it’s all about the amount of likes the individual can get. The artist become a supporting character on someone else's feed.

Today’s youth’s worth is measured in “Likes.” The media is the one to blame, this obsession to be “Transparent” takes no prisoners.

References.

- Nouwen, Henry. “Henry Nouwen and the trap on Self-Rejection.” Grace Pending. N.P. July 26, 2016. Retrieved October 01, 2019, from https://henrinouwen.org/meditation/the-trap-of-self-rejection/