Double standards for spotlighted citizens pose questions

In Our Opinion

Headlines about former president Bill Clinton’s scandal, football player Ray Rice’s domestic violence incident, actress Lindsay Lohan’s drug and alcohol problems and Miley Cyrus’s drastic change in appearance, actions and attitudes splattered across every media outlet. These headlines continued to spread through every other channel of gossip. Everyone knew, and judged in one way or another.

Much of society has become obsessed with and addicted to entertainment and pop culture — movies, music, TV shows, “reality” television, professional sports, etc. We feed off the paparazzi and media outlets like TMZ.com, who shine a spotlight on celebrities’ personal lives. The more we eat it up, the more they keep doing it.

As children and young adults, we’ve always looked up to someone as a role model. Maybe it was a star athlete in our favorite sport or our favorite actor/actress from TV and/or movies. Whoever it was, we wanted to be just like them.

As we get older, we magnify our fascination with our idol’s fame and their day-to-day lives. When they do something “wrong” we’re fast to judge, and most of the time, hold them to higher standard than we do ourselves.

Why do we feel the need to become the moral cop in these situations but either ignore or turn a blind eye when a normal citizen does something wrong? Rice was let go from the Baltimore Ravens after his incident was revealed to the public. Would any other person get fired if they had a domestic violence charge on their record?

On the other side, some celebrities get this inflated ego and sense of entitlement when they continuously get a “get out of jail free card” for something that an average citizen would not likely get away with. Then, they continue to push the limits.

The average person will get arrested for committing a crime. However, people will overlook athletes, celebrities and public officials’ history of bad behavior because of their talents. Why do these people get off easy?

Have we forgotten they are humans just like every other person in society? Is everyone perfect? No, we make mistakes. It’s one of the ways we learn what’s right and wrong and how we should behave in society.

The Internet was invented and social media became an addiction for many. TMZ has given us this irresistible view behind closed doors of all sorts of celebrities.

We have been given this never ending ability to look into the everyday lives of celebrities, public figures and politicians. We see all their actions — good or bad. We start judging their every move like we have some say in their lives.

Even though it may be impossible, try putting yourself in their shoes? How would you feel if your life was constantly invaded by paparazzi and strangers?

Instead of looking for role models among those in the limelight, why not seek those who do things just for the sake of being a good, humble, service-minded citizen?

For example, Bill Gates has given lots of money to charities and causes, but do you see or hear about him prancing around pointing thumbs at himself? No, he simply does it because he can and wants to as a humble human being who wants to help others.

What if we took all that energy and time we spend digging and gossiping about celebrity mistakes and put it towards something more productive and beneficial to the world and society we live in today? Imagine what we could accomplish.

Let’s take a look at what we are idolizing and gossiping about and question our motives. Never stop asking why things happen, or why people say or do what they do, but let’s change our direction to a less dramatic and more driven, productive society. Be humble and appreciate everything you achieve, no matter the size.

 

Reader Comments(0)