This year, multiple high-profile celebrity couples have broken up, devastating fans and making top news across multiple platforms. While it is easy for us to devote our time and energy to these relationships, celebrities have struggled with privacy because of everyone’s curiosity. Our entertainment comes at the expense of others’ peace.
The star of Camp Rock, Joe Jonas, and his wife, Sophie Turner, recently divorced after four years of marriage. Speculation around the reason for their split includes multiple theories from TikToks claiming that Joe Jonas “can’t handle a strong, independent woman,” to articles stating that Joe Jonas got divorced because the marriage was just too far gone.
With many people turning to social media for news and updates, it’s easier to distract ourselves with events happening in other’s lives rather than our own. Especially since we grew up watching these celebrities on TV and listening to their music. We do what we can to stay connected to our childhood and for some, that means to keep up with our childhood star’s relationships. We are able to take five to ten minutes to search who these celebrities are and what is going on in their relationships. Being invested in a life that isn’t yours is without a doubt a refresher and a nice break. It’s a weight lifted off when you see that there are others who go through the same thing as everyone else. Status does not change experience and we are able to see this more clearly when we see role models on social media or on TV going through real-life experiences. Celebrities are human too and they also make mistakes.
On the other hand, being overly invested in the lives of celebrities can often result in invasions of their privacy. The press goes out of their way to stalk these individuals and it takes away the authenticity of their relationship. For example, the paparazzi have gotten between Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck and continue to do so. With Lopez and Affleck, the paparazzi have harassed them at every place and event they’ve been to since they started dating. According to an article from Cosmopolitan, on their honeymoon to Paris in 2022 the level of paparazzi following the couple stressed them out. The paparazzi definitely goes overboard while covering stories and it creates obstacles for couples to stay together.
Social media is also close to crossing boundaries. Less than an hour after most events where celebrities are sighted, the whole story is posted across multiple platforms. This can be a good thing for the viewers because we can stay up to date on the latest news, although, when it comes to unfolding the story of celebrities’ lives, it gets too far. Our personal lives are a crucial part of happiness. If people are reporting on our every move, we become self-conscious and begin to change how we behave to please others. We stop being ourselves in hopes that no one twists the narrative or invades our privacy. Everyone deserves to be able to have some secrets in their life, whether or not they are a celebrity. We shouldn’t know that Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello have been living separately since before their divorce. It gets too personal on social media and celebrities need privacy too. When our lives are exploited on social media we tend to put on a show, but this can cause serious self-actualization issues. Celebrities shouldn’t have to suffer at the expense of our entertainment.
Celebrities deserve to have the life others do while being able to do their job. They signed up to follow their passion and perform, they did not sign up to be stalked and followed around. We can enjoy the stories that celebrities put out without exploiting them and digging too deep into their personal lives.
