Teenagers worshiping celebrity is nothing new. In fact, it's been around the block even before The Beatles! (Oh yea, talk about celebrity obsession with The Beatles.) I think it's perfectly normal for teenagers to go through that stage. I mean, Who didn't worship The Beatles, uh, and Elvis, and Nirvana, and Britney Spears? ITS FUN. What brings friends or people together more effectively than worshipping the same ...celebrity/god/thing together? and what's more fun than decorating your entire bedroom with photographs and objects? It's visually pleasing, and it helps exercising the creativity side of us!
So, why am I even arguing about this?
Because I just found out about .... The "CWS".......
The "CWS" is a shorten name for, "Celebrity worship syndrome", and it's legit. According to psychologists, it's a personality disorder. While I do agree that there are problems that are cause by overly obsessive behaviors, I don't think that teenagers should have this "personally disorder" crap put on them. I saw the article about this from a parenting website, and they suggested parents to carefully analyze their kid, and be sensitive to the symptoms. It's not that I don't agree the potential danger in being obsessive over a celebrity (because I do think it can be quite dangerous and we should be careful), it's just that the way grown-ups like to deal with this is through "authority", through "I-know-it-all".
And that's just pathetic.
This was part of the article written on teenager with CWS, and this is what they said:
"Recent studies have shown that teens who develop an unhealthy obsession with celebrities often suffer from low self esteem and depression. Teens who are overly obsessed with stars often have impaired relationships with their parents. Allowing this type of obsession to go unchecked can cause serious problems."
Well, who's fault is it? Maybe if parents are more sensitive to the "actual relationship" with their kids, they wouldn't have to worry about them having low self-esteem and depression. People can argue with me all they want, but I always believe that parents have more responsibility than they think they have. I don't want to get into that whole freud thing and psychology thing, but a child's development is heavily dependent on the parent.
Just to show how much effort people have put into the whole CWS thing, this was how they define the level of CWSness.
Researchers have identified 3 levels of "celebrity worship":
- Entertainment-social: A normal appreciation of a celebrity because of their ability to entertain.
- Intense-personal: Compulsive feelings about a celebrity; a person may feel a special bond with a celebrity or that their life is also affected by whatever happens to a celebrity.
- Borderline-pathological: Characterized by uncontrollable behaviors and fantasies regarding events involving favorite celebrities; may think that the celebrity is aware of them or would come to their rescue if needed or may feel angry and frustrated if a celebrity does not respond to letters or calls.
So parents! Keep on paying attention to the level of CWSness in your kids instead of really caring about how they feel and what they want to express, because one day, maybe it's not the celebrity that make your kid go Borderline-Pathological, maybe......... it's you.
LALALA, ANYWAYS! HAPPY POST RIGHT?
I hope the photographs were able to uplift the topic a bit (aren't they gorgeous? like eye candy?)
Sorry if I make you confused or angry, Im not even sure if I am writing in a coherent fashion or not, but I'm sort of in the mood to type! so I guess it's sort of a exercise for me.
✡
JL channels Daniel Radcliffe’s biggest fan. Read the interview here:
Official website of the Photographer Yu Tsai: