Response to Gergen - Celebrities

One of the most interesting things, for me, about Gergen’s article was his point that people can form “relationships” with celebrities and people in the media. He makes the point that television, magazines and radio allow us to feel connected to people that we have never met. I find it very fascinating, not to mention foreign, that many people follow the lives of celebrities and take a great interest in their affairs. They are distraught when their favorite star is going through a hard time; they rejoice when the star is going to appear in a new movie; and they pour over pictures of the celebrity and his/her family, children, and love interests. Gergen makes the point that we feel a connection to these people because we see them on TV or in the movies all the time. I would disagree with him. I don’t think that the way the celebrity presents himself is who that person truly is. Like Gergen says, we all have mutliphrenia – many different personalities depending on the circumstance. I find it odd that people feel that they know celebrities through their work. Why do people take such a great interest in people that they will never meet and who do not care at all about them? To me, this seems like a very strange relationship. Perhaps the class can enlighten me.

I like his point that “because celebrity figures are known by so many people, they serve as forms of social glue, allowing people from different points of society to converse with each other, to share feelings, and essentially to carry on informational relations.” I’m not sure if I entirely agree with this. I don’t think all interactions with strangers can be reduced to the fact that we all know the same celebrities. However, I do think that if we take “celebrity” in a broader sense of the word, the statement makes a little more sense: celebrity can mean someone who is famous in a group of people. So, at ND, Fr. Jenkins, certain popular (or notorious) professors, very outgoing, popular students, and the student body president might be considered celebrities. We all know them and can talk about them even if these people are not considered celebrities by anyone outside our group. I think the celebrities can help define the group’s identity because they represent (or are the antithesis of) what the group believes and stands for.) However, I don’t think that it is these celebrities in particular that hold the group together. The common interests of the group are what create the group and allow celebrities to emerge.