Why are Americans Obsessed with Celebrities?

Celebrities pervade American culture, and many people are obsessed with them. Magazines, news media and social media glamorize them. The public envies and some try to emulate them. What accounts for this obsession with celebrities?

Celebrities- movie stars, singing stars, professional athletes or billionaires- dominate social discourse. Never has America been so obsessed with the “celebrity” concept, or with celebrities as personalities. This spike in collective obsession has reached a point that many believe is entirely unhealthy for the fabric of American society.

We can now add to the list of celebrity status that of the super-rich, the billionaires. Media feed us a daily diet of what billionaires Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos did, thought, believe and own, with many people assigning them status and importance to society considerably greater than that of just being wealthy.

Celebrities have become the meat of many American conversations and social gatherings. Instead of engaging in personal interactions to discuss their own lives, feelings and thoughts on current events, they discuss the lives of famous people documented in the tabloids as if they know them.

Celebrity obsession has become so intense and all-consuming that people live vicariously through celebrities, sometimes at the expense of…