Britney Spears and a nation of tabloid media

One of the reasons I like blogging about books is that it gives me an excuse to write about topics I find interesting, adding fuel to my already fired-up opinions. Right now I’m halfway finished with Through the Storm (A Real Story of Fame and Family in a Tabloid World) by Lynne Spears, mother to the troubled pop-star Britney Spears. (Goody for Thomas Nelson Publishers, they are now on the blogging bandwagon, giving books to bloggers willing to trade links for free products. I’m going to need more bookshelves.)

Back to Britney: I feel bad for this young lady. She’s so young, with her mistakes and slip ups splashed across print and online tabloids. I had my share of screw ups as a twenty-something, what I call my Brainless Acts of Stupidity.

Would you like to know what they were? You would? Okay, do a Google search of my name. Go on, I’ll wait. (Hint: I”m not that muscular gal. What a hoot!)

*Monica goes to get another cup of coffee, checks email and Twitter*

What’s that? You couldn’t find anything on me? Of course not, silly, I’m not famous. No one cared a bit  about the mistakes of an average New Jersey co-ed, so my past isn’t here on the Internet. I was free to be me in private. The story of an average and unknown person won’t sell magazines. My goofiness and mistakes, certainly not as wild and over-the-top as Britney’s, will never be known to the world because everyday girls don’t inspire a media feeding frenzy.

Everyday doesn’t apply to Britney Spears because when you step onto the national stage of American consciousness, folks want to know you – the good, the bad and what you had for breakfast that morning kind of detail. I’m sure I don’t need to laundry list all Britney’s escapades here, they are well documented and well known. The last I heard, Britney Spears was the Number One name submitted to Google search.

This is our society today. We crave the intimate, tawdry details of a life behind the music, sports or movie star. And the wackier the better. The more bizarre, the more press she receives. We – and when I say we, I mean American society as a whole – pay lots of money for this privilege of having a seat front row center to the lives of the famous.

Sad, isn’t it? We are a nation with an appetite to know the sins of the famous. We know more about Michael Jackson, OJ Simpson, Britney and her kid sister Jamie Lynn and many others because of our craving to read scandal and sin.

For those of us who take the name of Christ, I can’t help but think that if we desired holiness and knowledge of the Word of God with the same fervor we do the lives of the famous, we would be all God calls us to be.

But that’s just me. I could be wrong; maybe I need to stop reading books that shine a light on the ugliness of our society.

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