Herspects - The Glorification of Gossip

You have heard it. It's called by all sorts of names - gist, gossip, talk, story, yarn, tory, olofofo, asiri. Yes, it's the new entertainment. Everybody wants to know the latest information about other people's private lives. Who is dating who? Who is having an illicit affair? Who has the latest ride in town?

Hollywood with its glamour and class has left many an admirer wanting to know whether these stars are human beings or supernatural beings. Are they like everyday people with an imperfect world and a broken window pane? It's this desire to have the behind-the-scene story that has turned gossip journalism into a thriving industry. Yes, there came reality TV. How much of what is shown as real is actually real?

We love to root for our favourite stars and celebrities.  Some people view their success personally as something they might want to imitate. If a favourite star endorses a T-shirt brand, some people use up their allowance to buy the tee.  Even when the stars quarrel with one another, some people are tempted to take sides with them depending on who makes them happy. Some look for malicious tales about the stars they don't like.

In Nollywood, there is a general understanding that some of these artists had a humble beginning. The envy isn't so much as when these people had nothing to hope for. The average Nigerian person wants to know how a musician, actor, actress, comedian/comedienne, made the money, how much an artist earns and what s/he does with the money.

Many people's lives aren't going to get better from reading about other people's passions, trends, mistakes and fetish. The idea is to emulate and imitate in order to learn. People spend a lot of money to keep up with the lifestyle gist of their heroes and heroines. Who's keeping up with the Kardashians?

Gossip is a million dollar industry. It's creating jobs, keeping teens in check, helping others to stray and reinventing the morality wheel. We now await the journalists to colour our views about what is wrong and right in the society  depending on what their favourite stars are doing or not doing. Some of us buy all the crap. Whatever it is, blogging has made it easy to get it all in nuggets like the two minute instant noodle.

Let's hope that gist about another person's private life isn't mere cheap talk; that it encourages one to become a celebrity. Hey! There will be someone to talk about one and one's kindergarten sweethearts. Love it up.