Celebrity Worship Syndrome
In 2003, New Scientist magazine reported that one-third of Americans suffered from something it called celebrity-worship syndrome, which it abbreviated as CWS. The growing popularity of celebrity-obsessed blogs, like Perez Hilton and TMZ.com, have surely boosted CWS. In a sign of the times, TMZ staffers are now regularly interviewed by the major media, often pre-empting People and US Weekly.
Pointing to the potential future implications of CWS is the growing number of mobile phones with cameras, a figure that will pass the 1 billion mark this year. Within a decade, an armada of worker bees equipped with some 4 billion camera phones will lead to an explosion in consumer-generated, celebrity-obsessed media.
Imagine for a moment, a live-updated, 24/7 show of pictures submitted globally. Uploads would likely number in the hundreds of millions each day. Timely example: One of the first, if not the first, iPhone paparazzi photos, taken by yours truly:
Pixel Paparazzi: Courtney Love captured with an iPhone outside The Mercer Hotel in New York’s SoHo district on Friday, July 13 at 6pm. This may well be the first paparazzi picture taken with an iPhone. The photo is also notable for its obvious image recording flaw, as you can see in upper left, center.
With its diminutive size and widespread popularity among media and creatives, the Apple iPhone could well become the poster child for digital voyeurism, part of the Voyeurgasm Ubertrend. It looks like Celebrity Worship Syndrome is set to truly reveal itself.
Ubertrends: Voyeurgasm
Value Propellants: Curiosity, thrill-seeking
2 comments July 22nd, 2007