In the middle of the night on Oct. 2, word spread from Paris that Kim Kardashian was in trouble. No one knew the exact details of the situation, but once the Kardashian name was mentioned, everybody was immediately engulfed in the story.
Later it was reported that she was tied up and held at gunpoint in her hotel room, and 11 million dollars worth of jewelry was stolen.
Yes, this was a very scary experience. Yes, anyone would be traumatized if it happened to them.
More than 123,358 armed robberies were reported in the United States last year. When this happens to an average person it doesn’t get mentioned in the local newspaper, but when a celebrity gets robbed it could be on the news for weeks. Our fascination with celebrities contributes to why we hear about them more than local issues.
Kim Kardashian’s scare wasn’t an isolated incident. Other stars such as Kate Moss and Simon Cowell have also experienced traumatic events that have been overanalyzed by the public.
In 2010, two burglars jumped Moss’s fence of her London home early in the morning. They broke into her house and took many pieces of art, including an art piece by the artist Banksy worth $115,000.
In 2015, Simon Cowell’s house was raided by thieves while he was at home sleeping. They stole money and jewelry then ran out of his West London home. Luckily, Cowell’s security guard caught the thieves and recovered more than $600,000 of his possessions that were stolen. These stories were shared across the world, and they have almost become common knowledge.
We have heard these stories and they have been shared across communities. Why is it that we place a greater emphasis on the rich and famous rather than the people who are most like us?
Psychology Today explains the concept of Celebrity Worship Syndrome. It is where someone becomes completely interested in the details of the personal life of a celebrity. Meanwhile, the media only propagates this phenomenon by giving all of the limelight to celebrities and their daily lives rather than actually focusing on what happens in their own communities.
Last August, a local armed robbery occurred at a Citgo gas station on E. Colonial Drive, and one man lost his life. Nobody heard about it. Nobody talked about it. We were more concentrated on issues in celebrities’ lives and not what happened around the block.
