ignore celebrities
At least take them off that goddamn pedestal.
I saw this phrase— “ignore celebrities” —in the merch section of a political meme account I follow called buddyhead (on instagram).
It’s run by a gentleman who posts about American capitalism and all of its corollaries like racism and misogyny.
But ignore celebrities? It tickled me.
With all the Met Gala stuff going on recently, the phrase reappeared and I decided to add it to my stories—which were filled with content about stars, society, and fashion—none of which I was interested in consuming.
Now I want one of those t-shirts!
Here’s my take.
Celebrities are a concept born from deities, ancient Roman and Greek gods like Eros and Zeus, carried through the last thousand years by royalty and heads of state.
Royal families were the predecessors of modern celebs, whose personas and lives we idolize just the same. Royals were also the social and political powers, the first colonizers, and masters of imperialism.
Today, entertainment is our religion and those who create and star in it are our royal families, our figures of fairy tales, and our mythical gods.
Collectively we give immense attention to these people, poring over their lives and experiences, sipping on every drop of commentary, endorsement, and behind the scenes clip they share.
But talented artists are everywhere. Beautiful, stylish, and interesting people are all around if you look.
Instead, we bow our heads and scroll.
We let ourselves fall in love with people who don’t know us and never will. We idolize not only those who are truly talented, we idolize people who are just rich, just pretty, just athletic.
It struck me today while I was stretching at the gym, that media and entertainment is the ultimate business, because it holds consumers’ attention in a way that few other entities can—organized religion may be one of the only others in human history.
Celebrities are a calculation.
They’re players in the game just like we are, except they trade their privacy for riches. They seek and receive the ego-feeding spotlight and in exchange, they uphold the narrative: Be like us, buy this thing, emulate our lives and you shall find satisfaction.
Keep consuming and you shall succeed.
What if we traded just 30 minutes of our daily screen time dedicated to media and entertainment for something introspective instead?
Could looking inward for half an hour every day, in lieu of looking at others' lives and consuming others’ stories, help us see the world differently?
spooky path in Silver Lake
I have a sticky note on my tv that says “create > consume” so that I remember to turn off youtube and attend to anything that doesn’t involve consuming. Write words in a journal. Make dinner, tidy the house.
I’ve been seeking spiritual growth and so I use non-tv, non-internet time to journal, take a walk outside, and make digital collages. Meditate.
Lately all I’ve wanted to do is read.
I’ve voraciously scribbled and dog-eared at least ten books in the last four months, feeling inspired and enlightened, and less interested in Instagram.
My point is this: celebrities are fun. The gowns they wear and the houses they decorate are beautiful. This is very clear. But none of it matters either.
Your lived experience, as a sentient human, does not hinge on what a celebrity wore, what useless drama went down, or which housewife has had plastic surgery done.
It might be funny, or mindless, or even relaxing…but it’s only a hit of dopamine, which can turn into a flood of sedation over time.
The only source of true satisfaction in your life has to come from within you.
If you’re constantly intaking information about others, laboring over others’ actions, romanticizing others’ lives and envying their power…you will never feel good and you will never understand what truly makes you tick.
From Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle:
“The more he contemplates, the less he lives; the more he identifies with the dominant images of need, the less he understands his own life and his own desires.”
Entertainment, enabled by technology—basically all social media—is led and perpetuated by the cult of the celebrity and ultimately, a function of the worst elements of capitalism (hierarchy).
They are all mechanisms to take your attention bandwidth and take your money.
If we ignore them, we might actually have a good excuse to unplug and work less hard.
If we ignore celebrities, we might collectively discover more things we enjoy doing and giving our attention to in our direct sphere of influence—activities that touch our souls and nourish our hearts, that cost less but bring us infinitely more satisfaction.
succulent garden at The Getty
Entertainment serves a vital role in our modern society and in the human experience. Without music, art, comedy, or incredible film, where would we find inspiration?
One easy answer is nature and your fellow humans. That’s where the best creators and entertainers find their source material.
But are celebrities qualified to sell you shampoo?
Are celebrities experts in anything beyond their specific set of talents?
It frightens me how many celebrities are also brand entrepreneurs, involved in businesses like alcohol, makeup, and fashion. Funding startups and then cashing out big.
And why are certain names all of a sudden in every show or every commercial?
Aubrey Plaza is modeling for Loewe!?
The pool of talent can’t truly be that small, and it isn’t. But talent isn’t the only requirement—it’s a willingness to participate in the machine, to become a media figure.
Many talented people aren’t willing to participate on principle, and for this I applaud celebrity outsiders, outcasts, and freethinkers.
Bloated Empire by Ed Ruscha (@ The Broad)
These are not new ideas, but the ubiquity of technology and entertainment-driven advertising, and thus the reach of celebrity influence, has reached new heights.
Try this challenge:
(1) Set time limits in your devices for all social media apps. I do 30 minutes per day.
(2) Come home at night and leave the tv off. Do something else with your evening. Maybe every other night is technology-free.
(3) Turn your devices off and put them away for an entire day—Sundays work well. It’s just a bigger version of number 2 ;)
Some closing bits:
I hope that in a near-future version of now, we devote more attention to the true leaders of humanity.1 There are people in our midst who I believe will define a new generation of gurus, spreading a different kind of message, one that’s not interspersed with advertising things to buy.
Instead, their messages will be of love, compassion, self-exploration, and spiritual evolution and growth.
The more deeply I dive into my own approach toward life, questioning things, the more I attract and interact with like-minded people who are undergoing similar change.
That includes people like buddyhead.
In summary: Give celebs a rest. Give them a year off to enjoy anonymity. Step away from the boob tube to focus on you, and see how differently you feel.
If you liked this post, give Society of the Spectacle a read.
Thanks as always for the edits, Susan.
And thank you for subscribing!
I plan to delve more into these voices soon
This is THE BEST. So thoughtful. Yes to your comments, suggestions, and inspirations.