Celebrity focus

This afternoon, I got an email update from the Chicago Tribune saying that Natasha Richardson had died. I thought it was sad, especially for her family but, to be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan so it didn’t affect me personally. Online, I saw a comment from someone declaring an inability to feel sad, then asking why we should care more about a celebrity dying than an ordinary person.

At the time, it struck me as a bit grumpy, even mean-spirited—although I realised it was unlikely any of the grieving relatives would see the message. Still, the question is understandable in one way: Celebrities are people we don’t personally know, probably never will meet, and yet many of us seemingly care more about what happens to them than the people next door—perhaps more even than we care about some relatives. Why?

I think part of the reason for that is the constant media exposure. We see these famous people over and over and through that we tend to think that we sort of know them. This is especially true of actors and performers, it seems.

I think there’s something else, too: Our humanity. In a case like this, we see a vibrant woman, seemingly happy, with children who still need her, cut down in what seems such a freakish and arbitrary way. We can feel for her family, we can imagine how we’d feel in a situation like this. All of which is understandable and a good thing.

It seems to me that maybe there’s one aspect further: Our modern society is disconnected and detached, and we often have little or no connection to the people who live geographically closest to us. The “village” is long gone. This isn’t news, of course, but maybe the focus on the passing of a well-known person, especially in tragic circumstances, is a way for us to reinforce our shared humanity through sharing the experience.

There are a lot of theories why us ordinary people are so fascinated by celebrities. I’m sure some academic somewhere has a far better explanation for this than I have, but this is what occurred to me after I read the comments of one Internet user. I don’t care, I still think the whole thing is sad.