What Makes Gossip So Interesting

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 27th, 2010

Gossip fans are everywhere, in all countries, in all cities, on all continents. Since old ages, people just liked gossip and rumors, they enjoyed talking about their peers when they were not around. Celebrities are included on the gossip topics most agreed list. Celebrity gossip makes the news so many times, so it is obvious that it is in the human nature to notice the leaders, the people who stand out from the crowd, and dissect their words, their clothes, their hair or their behaviour.

Celebrities like Paris Hilton or Britney Spears made the first page of many international publications, and not only once. Some of the famous people of this world had to suffer because of paparazzi, and in some cases, they even lost their lives because of indiscrete looks. Princess Diana is only one example in this respect. She got killed in a car accident while she and her friend were chased by scandal journalists. Is a human life worth all that? I suppose not. But time cannot be turned back, so it's time to head for the future and try to avoid such catastrophes from now on.

But who decides which celebrities make news headlines and which ones pass barely noticed? Is mass media responsible for this? It is very hard to tell. Journalists, and especially tabloid magazines ones are searching for a particular type of news. They seek things that are blamable or shocking, and many times they chase misery. Happiness is not news. Misery is. If a movie star has troubles, let's say she is stealing from supermarkets, this seems to be a hot topic for millions of people. Do you remember Winona Rider, to give you only one case of a star chased by media for her supposedly bad habits? How many other people steal from shops and nobody cares? Too many, probably.

One simple explanation for the love for gossip, and for the important place it occupies in humans' life, is that most of the people live a dull, boring life, so they seek excitement in the life of others. This explains also the success recorded by reality shows. Who would have thought that a time will come when millions of TV viewers will watch every night for one hour or so how a bunch of people are eating, sleeping or taking showers in a house where they are like in prison, all time in the objective of cameras.

Have you noticed how appreciated the celebrity gossip websites are, how many readers they have and how many comments they receive on each article? This surely shows a huge interest for the private life of successful people, a desire to take models, and on the other hand to accuse and reveal ugly things from beautiful lives of remarkable people. Like sex, drugs and rock and roll, celebrity sells. Every hosewife has dreamed at least once to become a great dancer, or a famous singer, or a Hollywood movie star. Instead of that, here she is, at the age of 30 or 40, washing dishes and taking care of four - five kids who mess everything around the house and who are equal to an atomic bomb.

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Nick Niesen

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Nick Niesen
Joined: April 29th, 2015
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