With the immediacy of social media, it has become very easy for us regular civilians to gain access to the private lives of the biggest stars across the globe.
You wake up and at the click of a button, you get to know what Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West did for Valentine’s Day. Granted that the Kardashian-Jenner clan is “famous for being famous,” as Twitter usually trolls, there are celebrities who enjoy their privacy. I remember a couple of years when Beyoncé stopped giving interviews and social media users were up in arms about it. Shortly after that, she stopped attending awards shows and that drove social media users up the wall.
There are, however, celebrities who are more than happy to share every aspect of their lives with us, so why not focus on that? In the early 2000s, supermodel and businesswoman, Kimora Lee-Simmons popularised reality television in the United States of America (USA). Shortly after that, other famous families jumped on the bandwagon – Reverend Run and the rest of the Simmons family, T.I and Tiny, Nelly, and the Kardashians. Explaining why they began the reality show, Kris Jenner said that they wanted their supporters to feel like they knew them on a personal level.
South African actress, Linda Mtoba, recently gave birth to a baby girl and has constantly complained about people who’d bump into her and want to steal a picture of her daughter while they greet. During Christmas time, social media users questioned why she always hides her husband in pictures. It was until she called them out that people backed off.
The surge of reality shows and social media has really driven people to entitlement over the lives of public figures. Much like we post certain things and choose to keep other things private, I think it’s time we started treating celebrities like the human beings that they are.
Abenathi Gqomo
