Like, why do you care so much if she’s sleeping with a new guy after just divorcing or her coming out or that rich family buying a new mansion? How does that affect your life?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
- Elanor Roosevelt
I feel like it’s because we’re told to. Celebrities are a big industry. Lots of money goes into making them and we think we’re independent thinkers but we’re not. We follow them because they know how to make us follow them. It could be a brown paper bag. If enough people tricked into being interested we all follow them.
Nothing new under the sun…
This might come as a shock, but back in the day there were these things called “Newspapers” where people got almost all their news and information.
One of the more popular columns in a newspaper was the “Gossip Column”, where a celebrity fortune could literally be made or lost depending on what that particular columnist wrote about them.
Hedda Hopper was NOTORIOUS for her column which ran from 1938 to 1966.
Can I say something controversial?
Celebrity gossip has exactly the same appeal as Shipping and fan-theories, just for people who are more interested in reality than some TV-show.
So just let people enjoy things.
I have never thought of it like that before, but it makes SO much sense.
They can enjoy whatever they want, I still think they’re goofy.
For sure… but those 2 groups are both equally goofy.
Imagine if they were left alone in a room <3
Because they have no lives of their own.
From an evolutionary standpoint it’s important to know what’s going on with people close to you. Who are people close to you? Why, obviously people who you’re familiar with - those whose faces you recognise and whose names you know.
So yeah, it’s a bug in how we’re coded.
I think people have a tendency to use evolutionary psychology as a crutch in explaining human behaviour. Like they suggest it can explain everything when it’s only one factor of many.
However in this specific case your theory makes a lot of sense to me.
You’re talking about at least millions of people making billions of decisions. It’s always going to have multiple factors. But evolution is almost always directly relevant, because it shaped our brain to the patterns it follows.
In this example, there are also plenty of external factors. The internet makes it possible to follow the behavior of celebrities. The celebrities have significant marketing teams actively trying to grab your interest (plus whatever businesses they’re famous in relation to trying to piggy back). The fact that you don’t have to spend 18 hours a day tracking prey just in case you manage to kill it. The fact that we’re hugely biased to be interested in more attractive people, to find people we’re exposed to more (especially in more glamorous lights) more attractive and most celebrities are also extremely attractive with professional teams to handle their appearance. The list always goes on.
But evolution is pretty much always a key lens to why we are what we are, because it actually is the why to almost all the low level behaviors that add up to big picture specific modern ones.
To add and reiterate what others have said:
- It’s similar to following sports and knowing all the game results, who’s injured/out for the season, etc.
- People like to feel part of larger society/culture, and to feel knowledgeable, to feel “in on things”
- It’s a way to fill time/fill the void, a distraction from “real life” which can leave you feeling powerless/drained
- It can be a good conversation topic with friends when there’s not much to talk about (or when other topics can be contentious)
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I have a take I’ve never heard before. For Americans anyway, celebrities are the royalty we never had and serve the same purpose, whatever that is.
As to the gossip, I think there’s often a case of “look how the mighty have fallen” schadenfreude.
Because they’re stupid
An alternative idea is it’s the same reason people like biographies or drama related stories.
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… from Steps?
It’s because they have nothing of value in their own lives to talk or gossip about.
People like drama and celebs are like casual acquaintances that everyone knows.
Honestly, that’s pretty close to my reason. It’s more like “I love hot tea, and celebrities are a guilt-free source of it,” though.
It’s kind of a mutually beneficial relationship, in a way. Many celebrities (not all, the ones that don’t aren’t ones I enjoy hearing about because it feels to much like invading someone’s privacy) thrive on having their names constantly in the tables, and I get enjoyment from the schadenfreude. Kinda like pro wrestling, maybe?
This is probably the best way I’ve heard it explained, ever
Because it’s so much fun Jan, get it!
At least I guess that’s the reason.
