Creating a stronger and more healthy community in Southern Illinois by building assets.
WAITING ON OUR 15 MINUTES (John Shadowens)
I remember reading something several months ago about how a large number of teens in America expect to be famous in their lifetime. I guess that really shouldn't be suprising. We have the means with YouTube and 24 hour media sources for average citizens to go viral and capture national attention virtually ovenight. Talent is optional. We literally have people with no discernable talent who are famous for being famous (Paris Hilton? Kardashians? Heidi and Spencer?) Really? Fame is a billion dollar industry. Oh, we all pretend we don't watch the "magazine" shows or read the tabloids, but they have millions of viewers, so somebody is lying right? It's almost a national past time, this worship of celebrities. We build 'em up just so we can have the fun of watching 'em fall. Whether it's Jon and Kate, Octomom, balloon boy, Britney, Lindsey or 'Brangelina', we know more about these people than we do about world affairs or political decisions that affect our daily lives.
So it seems natural that for teens, fame equals success and esteem. As adults I think we shoot ourselves in the foot here as well. We tell kids to live extraordinary lives. We tell them they can be whatever they want to be - to reach for the stars, dream the impossible. If you believe it, you can acheive it! Schools even bring in "motivational" speakers who tell kids not to settle for the ordinary and there are no obstacles except what they fear. Is this really healthy?
Take for example the three most common fame dreams of teenagers: Musician, Pro Athlete or Acting. I have a good friend in the record industry and he gave me a great stat for all the kids who dream of being a rock star. In 2008, there were over 105,000 new albums released by artists. Only 1,515 (1.4%) sold more than 10,000 copies. A coaching friend of mine once told me there are over 330,000 high school football players in the country in a given year, only 20,000 of them make it to their second year playing in college. Less than half of those receive scholarships. Less than 100 of them will ever sign a professional football contract. The chances are even more slim for basketball players. Even then the average pro career for all sports is barely three years. It is estimated that in West Hollywood alone, there are over 25,000 out of work actors dying to get discovered.
Being famous or extraordinarily succesful is a longshot at best. I played in some very talented and original bands for over 20 years and never even came close to breaking through into what could be called "fame". And at the end of it, is that really what we need? More famous people? How about if we as adults spent more time valuing plain old solid values? A stronger family. A safer community. A productive and contented workforce. What if we preached to our kids about being content with a happy and successful marriage?, a career that used our talents and skills to meet our financial needs? to be actively engaged in enjoying life and living in integrity, honesty and strength of character?
Why perpetuate fantasies of fame? In this day and age, would it not be considered an extraordinary acheivement for students to live contented, happy, productive lives? Have we lost perspective on what is most needed? Just throwing that out there for consideration.
