Since the advent of television and the Internet it seems there are few people in the world who are not celebrities. There was a time when people became famous for being talented in some way, perhaps for inventing or discovering something, or for winning a prestigious award, or something requiring the slightest ounce of intelligence.

Since the creation of television people began to be famous for simply being on television. At first this was at least credible in some sense as it could perhaps have been for being a serious actor or musician, but over the course of the past half century celebrity status has degraded and no longer holds any credibility whatsoever.

It wasn't until the end of the century however until it started to be taken to extremes. The biggest culprit of this is perhaps reality television. No longer do television programmes contain any thought provoking or intellectual content (except for the few specific channels dedicated to this, namely The Discovery Channels), instead they continue to degrade, seemingly on purpose to find the lowest level of programming that people will watch.

These reality shows often feature people locked together in houses being filmed sitting scratching their arses all day doing nothing interesting at all. The worst part is that people sit and watch on interactive channels all day long, so instead of doing something interesting with their lives they sit and watch other people’s lives, which are much more boring than their own.

Other programmes feature peoples homes being re-decorated, and mostly the homes end up looking like restaurants or bordellos, and always done in such a way that it would be impossible to live with it...and let's not forget that these shows are the reason peoples homes now contain so much mdf. They are not only reducing the quality of the programming, but now the quality of our furniture.

In addition to these awful shows, we also have to endure the outcomes of them in the media. There are "newspapers" that no longer deliver much news on current affairs, but show us celebrities doing their shopping, on the beach or out with their friends. This is something which, I think, should be made illegal. No-one, be they an actor, a singer or a member of the public should be able to have photographs of themselves shown in publications without their explicit consent.

There are magazines completely dedicated to celebrity, such as Heat or OK, which feature celebrities wedding photographs in addition to the candid ones that are seen in tabloids.

The most tragic outcome of this is when these paparazzi scum chased down Princess Diana's car back in 1997 which led to her death. The media couldn't even be respectful then, having the show the funeral on television, as well as people who did not know her being upset as if she were there closest friend.
The royal family is also quite a large part of the media these days. Throughout history kings and queens have been rulers of this country, leading us and always being held in the uttermost respect, and now they seem little less than a tourist attraction. I am not saying that it would be better to have a single ruler instead of a democracy, but it would be better to have a proper reigning monarch than a parliament as it stands today, but that is for a different discussion.

With the advent of the Internet it seems that this celebrity fashion has grown worse, as information can be transmitted to a much wider audience, and also can reach them much faster than before.

It seems no-one is famous for being talented anymore, simply famous for being famous.

Hopefully one day people will realise the futility of buying magazines to see photographs of celebrities doing their shopping or trying to share private time with their friends, but until that day comes these people will continue to waste their time and effort invading the privacy of others.