Post 8: Celebrities on Twitter

With celebrities saying whatever is on their minds whenever they feel like it (Kanye West, anyone?), I must ask myself why we even care in the first place. The phenomenon of Twitter makes our celebrity obsession exponentially worse and I still don't understand it. I confess I do have a Twitter account, mostly because I wanted to follow the person posing as Edgar Allen Poe (as all his posts are quite humorous) and to follow Paul Pierce in the off chance of being able to get Celtic tickets for free. But I am still trying to understand why I "friended" celebrities to know their own stupid thoughts on whatever they are thinking about, which many times is as interesting as what they had for lunch or commenting about being tired. Fascinating stuff. Generally, they do not discuss topics that are especially important, and with recent celebrity deaths it has become acceptable to mention how sad they are on Twitter in lieu of an actual sympathy card (perhaps I am wrong and still sent a card, I'm not sure). Fans follow their favorite celebrities on Twitter to feel closer to them and to obsess over every post and every picture. What is more upsetting is that news organizations actually quote celebrities via Twitter. Why isn't the facebook status enough anymore? Why are we obsessed with celebrities to the point that they can't go out in public without paparazzi everywhere? I wonder what is happening to media today, where instead of focusing on important issues in America including health care, poverty, unemployment, etc., we instead talk about the incident at the VMA's (which was wrong, no doubt) for a long time. Yes, we need to address when celebrities act inappropriately because they are role models for children, but lets also be aware that we need to focus on other issues. So the next time you feel the impulse to go on Twitter to see what Ashton has to say, I encourage you to check a news website and read about issues unrelated to celebrities (ignore the Gosselin articles entirely) that have to do with the well being of all Americans or people across the world.