Jordandchan

I’ve been doing a bit of thinking recently about different trends in youth culture, and one of these is the phenomenon of Celebrity (the uppercase usage is deliberate). There was a time (until not that long ago) when people of note in the world were famous for a reason. You could argue the importance of their achievements but generally speaking people became celebrities because of outstanding performance (sporting, cultural, scientific) or do to their great leadership or perhaps compassion.Increasingly we have are in a world where people are famous simply for being famous. The Paris Hiltons and Nicole Ritchies, starting out famous by association end up being celebrities simply because they are celebrities.

And that seems to be extending itself to everyone. People become famous for stupidity, lying and racism. It has been brought to light most recently by Clare Werbeloff (The Chk Chk Boom Girl) - who made headlines everywhere after giving a false (and politically incorrect) report about a shooting that took place in Kings Cross. Despite the fact she was blatantly racist, and made the whole thing up, she was proud of herself, and pleased with all the attention she was getting. All of a sudden she had entered Australia’s consciousness, and wanted to stay there. In fact she stated that the reason she had sought out the camera and given the false report, was a desire for noteriety, for celebrity.

Similarly, think back to Corey Worthington - The young chap who made the news after having his party gatecrashed by hundreds of people, and ended up having the cops called on him. Within hours he had an agent, trying to make the most of the story and turn it into fame. (As an aside, apparently Corey is now looking for any work he can get, even construction work.But for some reason, that had to be reported in the paper too).

I was reading a blog post talking about this the other day and it mentioned that there are three different kinds of celebrity.

There is the type of celebrity that you can simply be born with such as royalty, or being the child of celebrities eg Suri Cruise. Another type of celebrity is the fame that comes from achievements such as winning a gold medal, or being known because of your acting ability. A third kind of celebrity was possible that was notoriety, that was being known by a large amount of people for doing something wrong or criminal.

It seems that the stigma attached to the final example is being eroded, and that kind of notoriety is being more accepted. Claire is the perfect example of this. She was willing to ridiculed and shamed for her behavior, it if meant she got some attention.

Kids today see these people, their fleeting fame, and pointless celebrity, and aspire to it. So much of their identity seems to be tied up in this desire to be noticed and be famous. The saddest part is that you see this equally as much in the children of Christian families. we need to find ways of reminding kids that they’re identity revolves around their relationship with God, not what anyone else thinks.