Spencer and Heidi are on something called the Hills, which is either reality or sorta reality--whatever they're up to is not enough to get on the front cover of the Enquirer.

We're going to have this whole class of reality "stars" wandering around in 20 years asking if anyone remembers them...quite sad. I remember reading some about advice to a reality guy who was trying to break into acting, and the agent telling him to lose all the reality stuff on the resume: no one cares that you once ate a bug or fell off a giant inflatable horse, and bragging about it undercuts any claim you might make to actual acting chops.

But, more people know about Jon and Kate, then, like, know who is Nancy Pelosi; then know that AIG and Goldman Sachs have f---ed us real bad; that the Health Insurance Companies are trying to f--- us over, that know that the US senate is structured in a way that essentially allows Senators from small states to get bribed to vote against their constituent's interest; that know that Obama is marginally better than W. was on civil liberties . . . .

Can I just say, as a 27 year old, I frickin hate this me first, self indulgent, entitled, sentiment that is imbued into my generation. Like, the Real World 14 or so years ago was kinda cool when I was 13. But shit, these "reality tv stars" aren't real stars. They are nothing to emulate. They are not examples of success or even illustrative of how people are "in their situation." They play act and really just want movie deals. Anyone remember "mike the miz" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Mizanin. That Douchebag. These people are losers. Whatever happened to reading books.

This whole Jon and Kate (and truth be told Octomom) has fascinated me because my work awhile back introduced me to the Dionne Quintuplets in the 1930's. These were a set of Quints born in Canada who were taken from their parents and made into Canada's most popular tourist attraction "Quint Land" which drew more people than even Canada's side of Niagara Falls. They were, in TNC's formulation, definitely McFamous all over North America and graced the covers of Time, Life and all the rest and were regular features in the Newsreels. They were used to sell all kinds of things like milk, Karo syrup, cars, and anything else that benefited from a wholesome image.

There really isn't a solid book about them I can recommend but just Googling them and looking them up on Wikipedia will give you the flavor. Go to eBay and to a search and you can see what kind of crap you can still collect with their likenesses.

I bring this up because while it does look worse today, this type of thing has been around a long time. During the 19th Century the McFamous tended to be Barnum style Freaks like Tom Thumb or George Washington's 125 year old Governess or faux Cowboy showman who traveled in Wild West Shows, or my favorite, Sam Patch who went around the North East jumping off water falls at picnics and fairs. There is a really good book about him called Sam Patch, the Famous Jumper by Paul E. Johnson. There is also an excellent book about the slave who was touted as being Washington's governess called The Showman and The Slave: Race, Death, and Memory in Barnum's America

This trend might be more pronounced today due to the growth of media outlets to build up and tear down these types of McFamous people (I'm totally using that, did you coin it TNC) quickly and in front of ever more people for ever more money, but the trend is the same as it ever was. There is also the fact that these earlier examples died long before we had the technology to record their every act and people had to buy a newspaper or visit these celebrities live when they came through town. Now, as people point out, you can't get through a grocery store of even log onto the internet without being confronted by their faces and thanks to technology their faces will be around forever.

It's like the difference between looking at a field from a distance as oppose to standing in it. From a distance all you can see is green grass, flowers, and a cute fox. When you are standing in it you are bitten by the bugs, assaulted by hay fever, and can smell the left over carcass of hte bunny the fax just ate.

History can be like that especially when you are talking about pop culture. It always looks better from a distance.

I will now take my football off your lawn Old Man Coates.

Amen. I blame Reagan.

Is Facebook/MySpace a symptom of that? (i.e. "I'm so interesting that everything I'm about and do should be the business of everyone I know")... What ever happened to conversing with someone to find out about their interests? Social dialogue? My own "Get off my lawn!"

When were 'real' stars people we SHOULD emulate? Sorry, I just find the hand-wringing over reality TV stars to be just as silly as watching The Hills.

Oh, and 'The Miz is obviously a douchebag, but at least he parlayed his 'fame' into a career that is probably going to allow him to retire at a very young age. He might be a insatiable reader...

Suddenly, I feel 80 years old.

Whatever happened to conversing with people? Well, we don't have nearly as many neighborhoods, and our non-internet communities are too narrow to support everyone. Maybe the Great Recession will change that.

I lost touch with the McFamous set years ago. I frequently have no idea who the hosts on SNL are anymore, either.

But I disagree that it's a necessary coping mechanism... More of a "natural" outcropping from a culture bent on individualism... I think you absolve a certain level of personal responsibility when you write it off as coping. Coping with what? Not being famous? Boo.

BreakerBaker > I'm not blaming the social networking sites, I think they have some value, sometimes. I blame the obsessive need to have access (i.e. be all up in everyone's business) 24 hours a day. I think the social networking sites are just a symptom of the disease. Not only do people need access to others, they want to give everyone constant updates in their lives, no matter how mundane. People tweet/update their facebook status with such essential information as going to bed, going to the bathroom, at work, bored in class, etc. Thanks for the update! Except not really.

I guess everyone wants their 15 minutes. Drive-thru fame. McFamous indeed.

Logically, I don't think it always makes sense, and yeah, I wouldn't want to absolve all personal responsibility. But I do think that fame and the quest for fame may be a lot more intoxicating in world with so much media.

The best face I can put on this misery seeking voyeurism is that maybe it provides cautionary tales. Happiness is hard work, and it's really easy to go off track.

I used to write blogging and twitter off as just another symptom, much the same as FB/MS etc., but clearly, the Iranian revolution has proven Twitter has its uses, just as good bloggers like TNC have proven me wrong on that medium. The opportunity for me to eat my words remains.

On another note, MTV has managed to substantially ruin television, radio, and popular music. That's a pretty impressive trifecta of destruction.

We could go to the invention of the novel, which featured the lives of just folks as worthy subjects. James Joyce who took a nerdy young man and a somewhat meek ad man and put a light on into their inmost thoughts and banal behavior and cast them as the modern Telemachus and Odysseus.

Or more modernly a discourse on Marshall Mccluhan; of course, Andy Warhol. How about blogs? Facebook? Or the death of God and the hard existentialism that life is brief and then we die pitted v. the human ego, or the banality of contemporary existence.

Anyway, see Dick and Jane, not to mention their dog Spot and their kids--Brady Bunch gone reality bizarro? Soon, eternal holography beamed out to the far corners of the universe: Kilroy was here.

However, this latest fad of media-generated fame gleaned from simply being on television is sick, perverted, and has ruined countless lives in the process. It isn't that new an idea. In the 1950s quiz shows created new stars every night. When a new winner was created, the loser was cast aside. Author/Prof. Charles van Doren lost a lifetime of academic integrity and respect when he admitted he cheated alon with the show's producers just for ratings and $$. Others sought psychiatric counseling, many were left unemployable. Dr. Joyce Brothers saw through the charade and created a new career as a Radio/TV shrink.TV is a vast wasteland of cognitive dissonance; great writing from Twilight Zone, to Mad Men, some great comedy, (Flip Wilson, Sid Caesar, Sanford and Son, Newhart), and then just a huge pasture of pure unadulterated trash.

What's particularly galling about this is the children whose otherwise fairly normal childhoods have been sacrificed and sold to the devil for $$$. "Not now, Mommy, can't you see I'm doing an interview?" Oh, but, great--you have homework--ah, I guess it can wait. Interviews come first in this family,

It's The Truman Show coming to fruition:life imitates art. Insanity gets played out as the norm, and then, TV news just becomes a bit less real...

1. Real Famous: Angelina Jolie, LeBron James, the Dalai Lama
2. Kind of Famous: Jim Broadbent, Regina Spektor, Steve Buscemi
3. Niche Famous: Bruce Campbell, Ute Lemper, JG Ballard, Our Beloved Mr. Coates
4. Fake Famous: Paris Hilton, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Kevin Federline
5. Formerly Famous, Downgraded (Intentionally): Flava Flav, Gary Busey
6. Formerly Famous, Downgraded (Inadvertently): Phil Spector, Nick Nolte, Sen. Harry Reid
7. Formerly Famous, Out of Sight: Geez, I though he/she was dead . . .
8. Reality Famous (Intentional): Octo-mom, Supernanny, Sarah Palin's Kids, Meerkat Manor
9. Reality Famous (Inadvertent): Chelsey Sullenberger, Lisa Nowak, Meerkat Manor (the kats don't even know they're famous!)
10. Reality Famous (One-shot): Single-episode reality show participants (What Not to Wear, Tyra Banks Show, House Hunters, Fox and Friends)
11. Reality Famous (Youtube): Don't tase me, bro!, Lonelygirl15, Anyone with a cat
12. Formerly Reality Famous, Downgraded: Richard Hatch, Valerie Plame
13. Non-Famous: Me, and apparently about a dozen other people.

I would've come up with more, but my head hurts. Cripes, we're a confusing culture.

Especially after the "dimwitted duo" asked who Al Roker was.

I feel like I need to interject something here, though re: Jon & Kate + 8.

My wife watches the show. I glance at it in passing as I wander through the living room. But this season is the show's fifth year on TLC.

That's right: fifth.

It's not a new television program.

When it first came on, we lived in Central PA, about two to three hours from the Goeslin homestead. Initially, the show was a true documentary-style program about how this nascent family was handling the difficulty of raising twin 3 year old girls and a group of newborn sextuplets.

That's what it was all about, Charlie Brown.

But somewhere in the second or third season, it started to morph into the multi-vehicle pileup that it has begun.

And while the Goeslins are partly to blame...I also blame the producers and the television network for what it has become.

But you know what? We, collectively, as a society, are to blame as well for consuming this stuff.

I haven't gone back to review the demographic numbers, but I am sure that as the J&K train drifted off the rails over the last few years, the ratings numbers have gone up.

And we all know that ratings drive the cash cow. And it's all about the C.R.E.A.M. for the networks.

The first 3 eps are funny and I recommend it.

All that being said, I'm mad as crap that I have to know anything about the Hills or the +8. In my world, we call women with 8 kids crackwhores, and we call prissy white kids who live only for fame and notoriety University of Georgia graduates (Go Dawgs!). Thanks Yahoo for letting me know who these folks are and wasting my time thinking about it. Aren't there like 170+ other countries in the world where there is stuff happening, or do their governments all need reality shows based on them for us to care?

...and hey folks, I'm usually the most lib person on the block, but the thread here all seems to be about blaming someone, stop blaming and start shaming. Shame your friends and family for talking about and watching these people and maybe you'll make some headway is figuring out how to minimize the people in our lives...

Seriously, it does seem that narcisim is a bit like an STD in today's society. Perhaps we could call it the Pox Americana. I don't understand it. Reality T.V. has given us a few real gems, for instance, I think everyone's jaw dropped the first time they heard Susan Boyle, and we have reality T.V. to thank for that, but we also have to thank them for too many real housewives, househusbands, and spoiled people in general.

If you'll excuse me I'm off to watch booknotes......... oh wait booknotes was cancelled.

Respectfully taking myself away from your lawn. That shotgun looks awfully big.

Also, I'm in Chicago, and our resident Beatles expert (Terri Hemmert, WXRT) likes to occasionally remind people of the inSANE merchandising that swirled around the Fab Four back in the (pre-internet) day. From nail polish to lunch boxes to wigs. While the Beatles (of course) actually deserved massive attention, it seems that there is nothing that cannot be turned into a purely capitalist enterprise -- and if the point is to create a capitalist enterprise in the first place (ie: reality TV and the tabloids)? Well then, the path to overload is very short indeed!

but yeah it's sort of loserdom. weird i grew up thinking of myself as a loser but this stuff .. just a waste of time.

man this stuff moves fast... i'm 29..

Still, it's got nothin' on the one with Padma.

It turned out to be a way to reconnect with people I didn't have in my life anymore, but wanted to be there. Critics of Facebook and these social networking sites will usually make some kind of lofty rhetorical statement about how people should pick up the phone and call each other. (Not you, trefingers -- I'm talking about pundits who are starting to get on my nerves.) People acknowledging reality will admit that there isn't nearly enough time in the day to keep in close touch with immediate family, let alone friends. Unless someone wants to grant us all a shorter workweek, free child care, etc., which would be nice, Facebook fills a void.

It's too easy to let people drift out of our lives when studies show that relationships are really the main thing that makes us happy.

I can sign onto Facebook and get a text form of the same casual interaction achieved by seeing someone on a daily basis. Someone announces their kid took his first step, someone passes around pictures of their vacation, someone mentions he craves ice cream ... these are all things you would encounter just walking through the office at work, but no one complains about everyone broadcasting their lives when it happens that way. Why is it any different because these things happen online?

I'm chatting now occasionally with people I knew back in college, friends I assumed lost. Because I read their status updates, we have a conversation starter more timely than "Hey, remember how we hung out over a decade ago?"

I keep my facebook group down to people I truly know and like, so anything I'm comfortable sharing anything I put on there. The updates from my friends are often wry and funny, we share pictures and links, sympathize, commiserate and joke.

And I kind of suspect that criticism of social networking sites as narcissistic is eventually going to go the way of "I hate talking to a machine" -- something so outdated you wonder what the fuss was back when.

If you don't like it, just don't watch it. I can testify that it's working for me.

Dave above says

"But you know what? We, collectively, as a society, are to blame as well for consuming this stuff.

I haven't gone back to review the demographic numbers, but I am sure that as the J&K train drifted off the rails over the last few years, the ratings numbers have gone up."

I looked up the ratings at Entertainment Weekly and according to them, the big J&K +8 season finale, their most watched episode ever, drew in 4.6 million viewers. There is what, 300 million Americans not counting tourists, illegal immigrants, and people here on student and work visas?

According to my calculator that means only about 1.5% of Americans watched their most watched episode.

I have a hard time for blaming society at large for the questionable taste of 1.5% of its population. What gets under my skin is the media that creates these stars fill our airwaves, internet, and publications with more and more drivel about them in some sort of synergistic, symbiotic relationship to that 1.5% (heck lets call it 5% and assume that some people wanted to watch but had to work) to make these McCelebrities seem more popular and important than they really are.

And the irony is that those of us in the 95-98.5% who insist upon talking about how much we hate them only fuel the buzz and their artificial sense of importance and popularity.

Whenever i read the British newspapers online [especially The London Times] ,it is obvious that the British are worse than we are.

Many of these "reality" shows started in Europe .Big Brother [ created in Germany] , Survivor [ started in Britain], ect. Even American Idol was origianly Pop Idol in the UK.

Celebrity worship is as old as humanity.We are just more high tech now, that's all.