Celebrity Worship Syndrome has gone too far

The pedestal on which we have put movie stars, sports figures and famous people could give some people neck strain. We idolise them, follow their every move, and treat them as modern deities. Most of my friends in school are obsessive when it comes to a band — One Direction. While I do respect them and their songs, too much obsession can lead to depression and affect health and studies, too. The Celebrity Worship Syndrome (CWS) is now considered a personality disorder.

In practice, this often means that teenagers who are overly obsessed with stars have impaired relationships with their parents. When the ex-member of one direction Zayn Malik left the band, I saw many teenagers self-harming themselves on social media. They just locked themselves in a room and cried all day long. This is not the fault of any of the celebrities, but the extent that teenagers take their fandom to.

My friends in school are all obsessed with One Direction to the point that it is all that they talk about. It is almost as if they have become a part of them and that they respect them more than they respect themselves.

One day while we were all chatting in the bus, I just asked them why do they talk about them all the time, to the point where even the teachers in the bus get irritated as they are constantly referring to their songs. As I did that, they lost their temper and pushed me off my seat when the bus was moving. They just laughed at me and did not even help me get back on my feet as they felt that I had insulted their idols. The Celebrity Worship Syndrome has gone too far as we have reached a stage where some people do not accept anyone else into their group of friends unless they share the same idol as they do.

— The reader is an Indian student based in Dubai