Writer's block: Why do people care so much about the private lives of celebrities?

[jack]

Why do people care so much about the private lives of celebrities? Because (I assume) we're optimised to socialise in small groups, and knowing what our sibling's friend is getting up to would help bind a group together, except that now we live less in a small society, so we may not know anything about people other than close friends and colleagues, so who fulfils our need to gossip? The doings of friends-of-friends, of celebrities, and of soap-operas. I can't prove that's true, but I think it's the same need in all cases.

Comments

[andrewducker]

I agree. In ye olden days the people who were famous were also important to your life. Knowing the details of their lives was actively useful to you. Nowadays, not so much :->

[nanaya]

I think this is less genetic and more pragmatic. Famous people have typically been those with substantially above-average power, money, influence, etc, so knowing what they're doing is a form of security, when their activities might end up impacting on you.

[jack]

Hm. That would make sense, though my assumption was that people care about celebrities as much as, but not necessarily more, people they know, or other people in the news for some other reason. I don't know if you could demonstrate the difference or not.

[seryn]

Of course this is the same rationale behind professional sports being anathema to a functional society.

Playing a sport with your neighbors is good for your community, watching a professional team is only polarizing.

[sunflowerinrain]

I sit on the edge of humanity and boggle. I just cannot understand caring about the *private* lives of these people. Even the public lives of most "celebrities" seem thoroughly boring. I am interested in the opinions and some activities of major politicians and businesspeeps and quite a lot of artists, but I really can't summon interest in whether or whom they are shagging nor what they eat for breakfast.

A propos a comment ^ up there, I don't think much of watching sports either, unless they are rather balletic :)

[jack]

Well. I don't know WHY people like it, but I certainly seem to have the same gene, I just don't choose to dwell on it.

[(Anonymous)]

Boring! I only read this blog to find out the intimate details of Jack's sex life. What? Oh, sorry.
-- James Cranch

[jack]

ROFL. Maybe I _should_ post more about my personal life. I wonder if handcuffs and polyamory would be more interesting than god and philosophy :)