Privacy in a Public World

849 Words4 Pages
In this ever-changing world, now centered around technology and entertainment, it doesn’t take much for the lines between what’s meant to be public knowledge and what’s meant to be kept private to be blurred. A lot of this is also to due with the fact of the growing emphasis in social media, where people feel the need to make events of their personal life public and viewers are concerned with keeping up with the what’s what of who’s who. Even in these situations, the owners of a social media account are in control of what he or she decide to display to the public. Celebrities as well as other public figures should expect to receive the same privacy rights as other citizens and shouldn’t be expected to give up any rights, including their right to privacy, due to their occupation. In most cases the privacy invasions that celebrities are subjected to are used for entertainment purposes. Because of today’s society’s focus on entertainment, we think that all things, including private events of someone’s life, are subject to use for the average citizen’s entertainment. For example, there are many magazines and television shows dedicated to spilling secrets and gossiping about the daily lives of celebrities and other public figures. Four out of the eleven magazines listed in “Average Circulation for Top 100 ABC Magazines” were publications that focused on the lives of celebrities. (Source D). Among these publications were People, Teen People, STAR, and National Enquirer. Television also fuels the invasion of privacy with shows that focus on celebrity gossip, such as Entertainment Tonight. While many of the daily events of a public figure’s life can seem interesting to the average Joe, it is merely for entertainment rather than for necessity in the average person’s life to know where the famous go on vacation, or go to dinner, or what they spend their money and time on.
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