I remember going to the footy last year with Aidan a lot to watch our beloved Pies play in those cold winter months. There were two golden children that took to Collingwood hearts last year: the controversial Jack Ginnivan, and the young gun Nick Daicos. Ginnivan had a bit of a rough patch last year, and spent much of the year in the VFL, while Naicos was out for a long period of time after being injured against the Hawks. But when Ginnivan came back as the sub and when Naicos returned from that long stint on the sidelines, the crowd was audibly louder, the Instagram comments were noticeably infatuated, and the fans were doing anything to get a picture or signature from these two. I remember Aidan saying to me after every time this happened that ‘he’s just a normal guy!’ And not that there is an issue with cheering on your club’s players, but they both are normal guys that just happen to be brilliant at footy. Why do we idolise these people that don’t know us, and we don’t know them?
Recently, I did an interview that really made me dwell on this, with the brilliant Simon Agosta of Milkbar, who said to me, “what ends up happening with celebrity idols is you think they’re one thing, and the truth is, they’re not.” And it’s true- there are people we see through rose-tinted glasses, thinking that they are some sort of God while in reality they can be pretty average/bad people. I have been quite vocal about my admiration for A$AP Rocky, but I wouldn’t go out of my way and change my lifestyle to make it similar to his, nor would I treat him any differently if I met him in person. As the old adage goes, ‘never meet your heroes,’ as they often fail to meet your expectations.
This brings me to my first point: leave the people alone. The reality is, these famous people don't want to stop every two minutes to take photos with fans. Of course they appreciate their fans, but it's becoming more and more obvious in the social media era that celebrities can't live a normal life without being swamped for photos or signatures. There's a great video of Justin Bieber that shows this: when he's a kid, he likes the paparazzi and attention, but as he grows older, and can't do sh*t without being surrounded, he grows to hate it. Some of your favourite celebrities that you love so dear would rather if you just treated them as a normal person and had a normal conversation with them, rather than ask for pictures.
A prominent example of this is Taylor Swift. Why do people idolise her so much? It is reminiscent of something like ‘Beatlemania,’ and realistically speaking, Taylor Swift is not even half the artist that the Beatles were (sue me.) Kanye West, as another- the lengths that people will go to to defend his new album ‘Vultures’ is quite concerning to me. It’s an okay album, but Mr West’s followership is just cult-like to me these days.
People idolise these people because they see them as a God, and the vision that they strive to become. Their lives look so perfect that people are just instantly drawn towards that. Why are we so obsessed with becoming one of our heroes? It is an unhealthy obsession, and more likely than not, we become disappointed with these people once we discover their true colours. An article states that it can be an ‘escape’ for people in their everyday lives, but this is everything that is wrong with the culture. We shouldn’t be obsessed over what other people are doing, even if they have higher status than us in the economical pyramid. Success should be measured individually, rather than in comparison to celebrities. Just my two cents.
- Cedric
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