A Reason to Watch

It’s pretty common for people to say that there are certain celebrities that become famous for doing nothing. I’m not going to deny that. It’s totally true. The most famous current example is probably the Kardashian clan. Many will say the fame originated from the somewhat infamous sex tape that Kim Kardashian made with Ray J. I feel that it’s obligatory to mention the previous sentence felt ridiculous to write. Anyway, the family has basically become famous for being infamous. They have achieved a higher status in the social ladder, and skillfully turned the interest into an empire. What might be their biggest benefactor is that people want to pay attention to people.

It seems that everyone likes to watch other people. However, it’s rare that a person will actually admit it. The thing about people-watching is that it makes us think of stalking a person, which of course is frowned upon for very obvious reasons. It’s a bit of a paradox though. Just recently, I wrote to a friend through Facebook to whom I haven’t spoken to in a while. I asked her how she was doing, and what she was up to these days. Nothing out of the ordinary. However, I did mention that I speculated that she had been keeping busy, because my Facebook creeping of her profile implied so. That was a little bit strange, and for multiple reasons at that.
   
One reason that it was weird that I wrote I was creeping on her profile was, well… because I was creeping on her profile. Another reason it was strange was because I was so shameless about creeping on her profile, which says a lot about me, and the standards currently in place for looking people up. The third reason that it was weird was because the word “creeping” has become such a standard way to describe people looking at information that other people put on the internet for others to see anyway. We chastise people for being too curious about other people, but is being curious that unnatural? Curiosity is such a natural part of being human. For kids to stare, it’s totally acceptable. It seems that after someone hits puberty it officially becomes a social taboo to stare at people, especially when we start guessing what they’re thinking about.
  
 But we definitely still like observing.
  
 What the Kardashians give us is the ability to just stare at them. Like most “reality” television, Keeping Up With The Kardashians gives us the chance to people-watch without the fear of being considered weird. Very few people will actually admit to being a fan of their show because they’re afraid of all the negative connotations that come with liking it. I’m not going to lie; I’ve watched it and liked it. I have absolutely no connection to any of the people on the show, or any reason to even relate to them. Still, I was entertained and got to observe people being themselves; or at least pretend anyway.
  
That’s probably the reason that people like to carp on and on about the Kardashian’s, but still watch the show with such interest. This analogy may be a stretch, but it’s reminiscent of car crashes. No one really hopes for a car crash to occur, but if it’s there you’re probably going to slow down to take a look.
  
Granted, it’s entirely possible that the subject of our curiosity will change, as it certainly has in the past, but the reasoning behind our curiosity is obvious. We like to observe other people. That’s probably a big reason that traveling, especially to foreign countries, is considered to be such a positive experience. When you’re a wide-eyed tourist, staring at your surroundings is completely normal. Even stealing long glances at people is less taboo if you’re a tourist. You can just say you’re looking at how people dress (which may be true) or some other excuse, but we really want to see how people act. We want to know what’s important to them and how they act, and then judge them based on what we observe.

So for now, the Kardashians can go on milking their own exposure. People will complain, and people will watch.

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