I think that this fascination with the mundane celebrity life is rooted in the idea that the more we're like them, the closer we are to achieving the fame and glamor that comes with celebrity life. Hey, I ALSO eat at Pink's Hot Dogs, maybe one day I'll be just as famous as Tyra Banks...maybe.
Ok, maybe keeping up with celebrity activities can have a positive effect on people. For instance, if celebs are photographed going to the gym or walking out of Whole Foods Market. That might encourage the occasional fan to go work out a little or buy organic foods...that's not so bad at all. But then again, celebrities are not always photographed doing productive, life-enhancing things (ahem, Lindsay Lohan). But besides the party pics of the celebrities boozing it up--those are so common that I'd rather not spend time worrying about it--there are other actions that I think have greater repercussions. I ran into this website the other day called, Celebrities Eating Dot Com which is exactly as you would imagine it, a site of pictures of celebrities eating. And on this website is picture after picture of celebrities of all sorts stuffing their faces. And while I'm happy that these celebrities are managing to get some food in their systems, what happens to the normal sized people of the world (such as myself) when we see stick thin celebrities like this:
eating a Big Mac? Not only does this justify our own unhealthy eating patterns, but it makes us associate McDonalds with thin. And everything just turns into this huge vicious cycle because we want to be thin then we copy celebrities and binge eat then get fat then want to be thin even more and go to our celebrities again. That'll just eat you right up! Amidst all the pressure that we get from society to look good ALL the time, who needs to see pictures of people who show no signs of the consequences of one too many hamburgers? I say it's unhealthy and maybe if we put a little more thought into the work that goes into keeping those celeb bodies thin, we'd think twice about stopping by the local fast food joint for a quick bite.
