What is this obsession people have with other people's lives?

[S n o w b a l l]

She's bisexual, she's a lesbian, he slept with 14 women, he slept with a man, he cheated on his wife?

WHO CARES? What is it with people? Why can't people just live their own lives and leave other people alone?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear S n o w b a l l...

I'd like to know the answer to that one too...

Don't we have better things to talk about?

Someone said "petty minds talk about other people." I forget just who, but it's in someone's sig line...

Nice to see you tonight, sweetie...

:hug:

[S n o w b a l l]

3. Little, lonely lives is all I can think of Peggy...

Nice to see you too, sweetie.

:hug:

[goldcanyonaz]

4. Little lonely lives, would that be those bringing it up or those complainng about it?

[S n o w b a l l]

6. I didn't bring it up...

you did.

[goldcanyonaz]

7. You began the topic, not I.

[S n o w b a l l]

8. Love the way you twist things...

:)

[Mopar151]

25. Some of those cannot build up

Live to tear down.

[Dystopian]

12. I just copied it today....

S n o w b a l l:hug:

Peggy's right, and I copied the sig line...just yesterday...eerie.

"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people." - Eleanor Roosevelt

The quote was enlarged 'paper size'....
I'm a dreamer...I wanted to put one in everyone's mailbox at work.....
But I typed it, put it away...and live on knowing I'm a dreamer...

It's LynneSin's sig line...


peace~

edit...yesterday...today...all days blend into one....these days...

[S n o w b a l l]

13. Thanks Dystopian....

:hug:

:loveya:

[goldcanyonaz]

2. It's because they are public figures who make money off of the public.

[S n o w b a l l]

5. Have you given them any money?

I've never given Jesse James any money. Seriously, why do you care??

I'll never understand it.

Live and let live is my motto. I truly don't give a shit what you do or anyone else does in their private life if it doesn't affect me. Just because I might pay for a movie that an actor stars in doesn't give me the right to dictate what they do in their lives or to put them on some kind of pedestal because they're famous.

[zx_3500]

9. just human nature

sad, i know

[Name removed]

10. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[nolabear]

11. Human. Just human. It has always been thus.

We just have such instantaneous ways of bein' all up in everybody's business now that it can become obsessive very easily. And everybody and their dog wants to use our prurient sides to sell us something, so media (whick Gary Trudeau so often portrays as a pack of hounds) throws things at us faster and louder in order to get us to justify those sponsor dollars.

[rug]

14. Because too many people define themselves by other's faults.

[Captain Hilts]

15. Everybody needs to follow one NASCAR driver and one unstable pop singer to keep up with

idiot culture. Or Star Trek.

You can't talk politics, sex or money with folks, so you might as well talk about something meaningless.

[Mopar151]

26. Idiot culture?

Who's an Idiot? Since you're bashing NASCAR as an example - show me one Professional NASCAR driver, crew chief, or owner with a subnormal IQ. Show. Me. One.

[Captain Hilts]

27. It's the way it's presented that's idiotic. I know a NASCAR timer and mechanic. They're

VERY smart folks.

But the press picks ONE guy - Dale, Jr. - and covers them ad nauseum.

The press cheapens so many things:

there are NASCAR drivers, etc. that are very, very smart.
Amy Winehouse can actually sing. Really.
Susan Boyle can really sing.
Lindsey Lohan has given some terrific performances on screen.

And so forth.

[Mopar151]

29. Then why not say so?

The papparazi, the tabloids, and the shows influenced by them - inside Edition, Extra, even the morning talkers to a degree - are the ones who do the stalking and piling on, the incessant coverage before shifting to a new target. The journalists who cover pro sports in depth know these guys pretty well, and they are somewhat inclined to let their friends have a pass now and then - and they check facts as a matter of course, and have enough class so as not to follow folks into the toilet.
The "stalkerazzi" are waiting in the stall next door, hoping to leap over the partition and grab a shot. And they feed on the desire - as expressed by a poster here - to take anyone in the public eye down a peg.

[BuelahWitch]

16. I don't really know any of these people who are celebrities now

Nor do I think they're very interesting, so I don't pay attention to the gossip about them. But so much of our news involves entertainment these days, that I suppose it's impossible to avoid it.
Of course, I say that as I'm about to start reading a book written by a woman who ran a brothel in old Hollywood, so I'm totally full of shit! :rofl:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

17. I think it is not nice of us as a species but, we do it ---kind of like

keeping a scorecard against ourselves. A ruler of how is My Life compared to So and So's life. I would not say that I am obsessed by other people's lives but I do take notice of certain events and feel empathy or whatever emotion at what it is that this person may be going through at this juncture of their live.

I do relate to some celebrities more so than others....and my ears do "perk up" when I hear their name mentioned in the media.

:shrug:

anyway...:hi:

[MajorChode]

18. When it happens to famous people, it gives others a feeling of moral superiority over them

The only time I really care is when you have someone like Vitter who tries to take the moral high ground, and then it becomes more of an issue of hypocrisy rather than morals.

[Kali]

19. eh

gossiping is a pretty universal human social behavior - a way of communicating certain things to other people
I don't pretend to be above it, I know I am the subject of it around here (where I live - maybe DU too!)

a lot of celebrity types seem thrive on it, the old "any publicity is good publicity"

[S n o w b a l l]

20. Kali, I think it just boils down to the fact that I get irritated

with judgmental people. If it's not about someone cheating or their appearance, it's about their choice of music or restaurants, food and a myriad of other things. It just bothers me, that's all. No one's perfect, but you wouldn't know it by reading things around here sometimes.

[Kali]

21. so you are judging judgmental people?

}(

I'm sort of kidding - I want to say "just relax, you can't control this" but I know how effing irritating and condescending it is when somebody says to relax when you are upset about something.


but...








just relax.:hide:

[S n o w b a l l]

22. Well, ok then

:banghead:

:D

[RandomThoughts]

23. Some people live in a zero sum gain world when it comes to joy and sorrow.

For some people, seeing other people in sorrow makes them feel better. Its like inverted empathy.

Instead of feeling bad, they actually take pleasure in another's suffering. Sometimes it is a feeling of justice, but in most of the gossip stuff, that does not even make sense. And who is to know if it is justice or some hindrance on the person.

Or maybe they live vicariously through someone else, and do feel the empathy, guess it would depend on the way such thing is spoken of.

[rcrush]

24. My Grandmother had an affair with Susan B Anthony!

[Phentex]

28. I was once obsessed with Susan B Anthony! ...

It was right after I purchased a book of stamps from the machine at the post office using a $20. I left there weighing more than when I had gone in.

[MiddleFingerMom]

30. Mentioned earlier in the thread...

.

.

[datasuspect]

31. because everything about our culture enables the breakdown of real community

all our activities and pursuits ultimately center around watching television.

[seabeyond]

32. would we be obsessed, care or even know if news wasnt continually feeding it to us.

i dont care what others do. i PREFER not ot hear what others do. everyone wants to share everything that they do. a huge voyerist mentality. look at me. look at me. and then rant about, how dare you care what i do. when the whole purpose is to provoke or shock.