Scroll through your Twitter time line, or simply scan the headlines on your way to the checkout lines and I guarantee you’ll see the names of at least five celebrities. What they’re wearing, where they are and who they’re currently dating, heck what they just ate is even a must-know for many. Justin Bieber’s Beliebers, One Direction’s Directioners, and even Lady Gaga’s Little-Monsters, have epitomized a new generation obsessed with celebrities; an obsession that’s beginning to play a negative role in our generation.
According to the Daily Mail, it is believed that one-third of the world has “Celebrity Worship Syndrome,” meaning one is so obsessed with certain public figures that he or she suffers a legitimate medical disease.
Sophomore Yassmin Shamma classifies herself as a true Justin Bieber,“belieber.”
“I have a Twiter dedicated to him and I spend countless hours looking up his videos and watching them over and over again.”
While many shy away from the idea of being considered medically obsessed, it is quite common to contract “Cyrus virus,” “Bieber fever,” or “Direction infection.”
“I can’t help it because I never thought of myself as being so obsessed over someone but it just happened anyways,” Shamma said.
A new world wide pandemic has hit teenagers across the world as they have become officially addicted.
Websites and news mediums like TMZ, Perezhilton.com and Entertainment Tonight all attract thousands of loyal subscribers all of which are driven to find the latest information on Hollywood icons.
But, what’s perhaps most disturbing especially for this generation is the new extent to which this addiction has been taken. This obsession is not simply limited to just cultivating information anymore.
With reports surfacing that Justin Bieber was and has been smoking weed, social media went up in a fury as hundreds voiced their opinions on the issue. But none was more horrifying than the trend #CutForBieber where members of Justin’s 38-million-strong Twitter followers came up with the idea of self-harming themselves in order to gain media and Bieber’s attention in hopes of getting him to quit his “habit.”
Directioners have become so experienced in their celebrity stalking brigades that a group of fan girls were able to successfully break into New Zealand’s Aukland Airport’s security system, just to watch Harry Styles sitting down in the waiting area through one of the airport’s surveillance cameras.
A clear sign according to psychiatrists of the third phase of “Celebrity Worship Syndrome,” is when fans may suffer from obsessional conditions that may cause them to break the law.
The first stage of the disease is when a fan’s interests gets far too addictive. A fan becomes so devoted to information on their idol that they begin to pay attention to all news relating to their icon such as clothes, their latest vacation or what restaurants they recently ate at.
Ten percent of fan girls will reach the second stage of the syndrome where one becomes so oblivious that they believe to have a “special relationship” with their idol.
Already perceived as the generation of ignorance, this new celebrity fascination only worsens the image already placed on teenagers today.
Now, we’re seen as fanatic fan girls, only fueled and concerned by what happens to the icons of Hollywood, when more times than not we don’t even know what’s occurring outside. Ask a Directioner to name all five members of One Direction, when they were born, what their favorite foods are and what they were doing just yesterday, and I can assure you nine out of ten will answer you right off the bat. But ask them who the German chancellor is or the name of the current Syrian President, they’ll pause, stutter and finally admit to defeat.
It’s sad how we misuse the technology and the resources we have. Social media, which has the ability to inform and change any issue in the world, is a hot line and discussion group for fan girls; not that we shouldn’t use Twitter, and Facebook for leisure or to just simply talk about nonsense. I mean that’s why so many are crazed with celebrities in the first place. It’s fun to just get away from reality and immerse yourself in something else completely. But, we shouldn’t forget that our generation has potential.
We shouldn’t just be seen as the crazy fanatic fan girl teenagers but a group that knows their celebrity trivia, and Justin Bieber’s favorite food AND who the current president of Brazil is (It’s Dilma Rousseff by the way), and a group motivated to find a solution to the recent mass shootings and the gun law debate.
So just remember while you’re stalking Bieber, Zayn Malik, or even Kim and Kanye, check what’s going on in the real world too.
