Tweet, tweet, tweet

I think I'm going to begin my quest to figure out why our society has become so fascinated, perhaps even obsessed, with celebrities with the increasingly-popular Twitter. I'm sure you've all caught up on the trend, checking in on your favorite celebrities or athletes; maybe you even have a twitter yourself! What better way to know exactly what all your favorite celebs are doing than to have them tell you in 140 charactersor less? I mean really, Twitter is the ultimate way to "follow" a celebrity's every move without actually stalking them. Twitter really is a fascinating thing. Not many of us know celebrities, local or otherwise, and it's kind of fun to "hear" what they're thinking and know what they're doing. We can all be celebrities for a moment, if only vicariously. But why has Twitter become so popular so quickly? I think it has a little to do with our society's need to have all the information we want right away. Why wait for the next issue of People to come out when you can find out what the Kardashian sisters are doing this very minute? But I also think it has to do with our want to be personally connected to those we idolize. As Time's Steven Johnson points out in his article "How Twitter Will Change The Way We Live", Twitter allows us to have real-time conversations with those we "follow." And I think this has become the real draw for most people. When celebs give us the 411 on their latest goings-on we can immediately tell them exxactly just what we think about it, and they in turn can respond. And just like that you've communicated with someone you've never met and is potentially thousands of miles away. Just as Twitter connects us to Hollywood's A-list, the networking site also connects us to, say, College Station's A-list. Or Norman's A-list. Or Austin's A-list (hissss). Or I could go on and on, but the point is you can become personally connected to the celebrities who live just around the block without actually going just around the block. There are few "A-list celebrities" at A&M who don't have a Twitter. In the same way you can follow the Kardashian sisters, Ashton Kutcher, and Jason Witten, you can also follow Jerrod Johnson, Uzoma Nwachukwu, Dash Harris, BJ Holmes, even Coaches Sherman and Turgeon. And I do. As weird (and creepy) as it may sound I like to "hear" what they have to say, but I'm sure you do to. Fascinating? I think so!

Sure to be fascinated again,

Caity
(Twitter picture belongs to Technorati.com)

Obsessed

Welcome to Fascinating! In writing this blog I want to explore all the ways our society has become obsessed with celebrities and why. Everywhere we look and everywhere we go we are being updated about the personal details of the lives of celebrities. And I totally buy into it! I'll admit it, I'm a subscriber of People Magazine. In other words, I am hated by all celebrities. I can't help it though; their lives are just so...fascinating! Now, I think the attraction for me is just that they have so many more opportunities to do interesting things that I definitely don't. I'm a college student after all, no jetting off to Paris for me! I am what I would call a mild observer of the celebrity lifestyle, as are many people. However, there is a whole other class of observer that Wikipedia calls "Celebrity Worship Syndrome." We can take this diagnosis with a grain of salt since Wikipedia has its faults, but I don't think the author is really that far off the mark. As a society, we have become so interested in the inner workings of the lives of celebrities that we pay people thousands upon thousands of dollars to invade the privacy of celebrities and take their pictures.Throughout this blog I want to look at all the different outlets we use to obsess about celebrities. I'll look at magazines, the multiple categories of blogs, online news sites, entertainment news shows, and various other avenues. Together maybe we can figure out just what we find so enchanting!

Forever fascinated,

Caity