Have you ever found yourself wondering why people are so interested in the lives of celebrities? Everyone becomes all ears when it comes to some spicy gossip about the latest news related to famous people. Whether it’s good or bad, people just want to make themselves part of the drama. But the question is: why?
A psychiatrist claims that while this behavior is completely normal, the only change that has occurred recently after centuries with this phenomenon is using the word ‘celebrity.’ In the past, it was simple, knowing some private details about a person automatically made them important socially to us. Here’s what a psychologist has to say about why people love to gossip about celebrities.
Why Do People Take Sides During Celebrity Feuds?
Parasocial relationships are one-way relationships, and people form these relationships with celebrities in which a fan follows their life while the celebrity does not pay attention to them. Despite no reciprocation, they form the feeling of a kind of “friendship” with the celebrity, which ends up triggering all the emotions that you would feel if you had a real friendship. Moreover, this is why people take their favorite celebrity’s side, they often feel overprotective towards them. Eventually, end up hating the celebrities that are the enemies of the celebrity they like.
How Did Celeb Gossip Take Place Before The Internet?
It is quite self-explanatory that if you know a lot about a certain person, you always want to know if there’s an update or be informed about any news-worthy happenings. Hollywood stars in the 1930s and 1940s got all their praise and fans from radios, movies, and magazines. Even before this, people generally liked to know about anything there was to know. When it came to people, they had plenty of information to begin with, and they always wanted to know more either because the people they’d be interested in were powerful and could impact their lives or simply because they spent plenty of time together.
Can This Obsession Become Healthy At Some Point?
Most certainly! An obsession of any kind is highly unhealthy for a person, whether hate or love. If this urge to know all about a celebrity’s life and form a one-sided relationship with them starts hurting your relationship with people in real life, this would most definitely be described as an unhealthy obsession. There is nothing wrong with keeping up with the world and its politics.
In fact, it’s a great thing! However, obsessions can turn out to be dangerous for you, so it’s wise to come out of them asap!