Our society has been thoroughly taken over by an influx of gossip. Everywhere, we are pounded by ... Gossip gone wild...

Our society has been thoroughly taken over by an influx of gossip. Everywhere, we are pounded by images of a celebrity acting unusual, from jumping on couches to having a public breakup.

The problem is a new form of mediačconvergence where there seems to be roughly three magazine covers, eight TV shows and five-thousand blogs every time Paris Hilton sneezes.

It is a unique problem of the time that one cannot simply read a new story, but must instead hear the story from many different and conflicting sources. One of the first cases that comes to mind is that of Britney Spears driving while holding her infant in her lap. I first encountered this atrocity on pinkisthenewblog.com, where the pictures and a snarky comment in hot pink were present. The following day I found it mocked on satire sites with countless insults, parodies and jokes available for the viewer. A few days later I turned on CNN to find a heated debate about the issues of child safety centered on baby Preston's driving lesson. In just doing my normal daily activities I encountered this story countless times with a variety of input from an endless list of self identified experts. The result was that I could no longer care about the seriousness of the situation because I was on information and commentary overload.

The frustration the common man feels is fully justified. A celebrity story that one doesn't even care about can force its way into our lives and reek havoc on the system. I've never found a single reason to care about the existence of Jessica Simpson. Lately, however, I am unable to buy my groceries without seeing at least a half dozen pictures of her, all framed by headlines about her "scandalous" divorce. My anger at being forced to view Jessica Simpson's man-jaw whenever I need some more tofu is justified, but my frustration lacks direction because this is a problem that lacks a clear culprit. When a society is overwhelmed by a plethora of celebrity knowledge there is nobody left to blame but society.

This is where we all need to fess up to our own dirty deeds and predatory instincts toward the lamb of celebrity. The reason that the newsstand is smudged by greasy tabloids and wincing from the paper-cut of 8 x 11 glossies is our own carnal hunger for all things famous. We are a society that has come to worship fame for fames sake; no other explanation can justify the rise of Paris Hilton and the demise of common decency. Nobody is willing to take the blame for our current state, but everybody is quick to accuse the media or the American way of life for causing the problem.

When so many people spend so much time and energy on a topic that seems as inherently banal as celebrity gossip there has to be a hidden reason for it. If I could hazard a guess as to the cause for it all I would suggest anxiety towards the future. Celebrities are fleeting, and celebrity news is very much here today and gone tomorrow. Keeping up with the current scandals is a way of solidifying oneself in the present, knowing such temporary knowledge prevents thinking about the vast unknown we are all stepping into.

As technology, communication and society grow at an ever increasing rate, the public begins to resist the change and cling to the familiar. Worries over our depleting energy sources can be parlayed by the current issue of US Weekly. Fears of our increasing loss of privacy are subdued by knowing where Lindsay Lohan went dancing over the weekend. By investing ourselves in something so fleeting, we manage to slow the process of change and can remain content with our lives. We can all sense that the world is changing forever, and life as we know it won't exist for much longer. So for now, we're content to ignore the obvious signs of global development and pretend that all that matters is where Angelina's next baby will come from. And when you think about it, if change is inevitable, it just easier to sit back and enjoy the ride.

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