Will Celebrity Worship Syndrome affect future adolescents?
Celebrity is defined as the state of being well known, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary. But, they ever-expanding obsession with knowing every moment of a celebrity's life has grown into a mental medical condition for many. This illness is addressed as Celebrity Worship Syndrome, and future generations will be affected even more so than now with growing celebrity statuses and influences in their lives. As history has shown, the more prominent celebrities become in a society, the more adolescents become obsessed with the lives of the famous and grow into an adult with a manifest of psychopathic patterns such as stalking, impersonating, and creating false relationships with said celebrities.
Celebrity Worship Syndrome is easy to succumb to when a nation has as much celebrity gossip magazines circulating as the United States. This allows people to constantly be around celebrity influences and unknowingly push them into the first stage of CWS. One in three Americans have gone through all stages of CWS to the most severe level of obsession (Horovitz), but most have been in or brushed on the first stage. In the 20,000 surveyed all respondents where in at least one of the stages (Tancer 90). Stage one contains reading entertainment magazines and using the knowledge of celebrities in social life, which leads up to using public figure interest as a healthy “form of escapism” (Tancer 90). This is where the majority of Americans fall: reading People and Vouge, stumbling upon websites for celebrities. The younger, more easily influenced generations already fall into the same trap with entertainment outlets such as GL, TeenVouge, and TigerBeat. Stage two is referred to as the “intense personal stage,” (Tancer 90) which contains an addiction to knowing everything about a celebrity. People begin to withdraw from society, finding stories about a favorite celebrity more fulfilling than social interactions (Tancer 90). This is when checking on the life of a celebrity on a website or other resource becomes a comforting part of daily routine. The final and “border pathological” level is Stage Three (Tancer 90). In this stage, people blur the line between interest and obsession. These are the stalkers that make the news. (Tancer 90) Stage Three people think themselves an extension of the celebrity. Celebrity Worship Syndrome is quite literally as it sounds; a person treating a celebrity with such passion that it becomes his or her life. CWS is a growing issue in America, and younger generations are already being influenced.
