70,400,000 hits—
“Michael Jackson on Wikipedia.”
“Share Your Memories of Michael Jackson.”
“The History of Michael Jackson’s Face.”
 
For over two weeks, four syllables have been at the forefront of the media. And people can’t seem to get enough. Thousands showed up for a memorial yesterday and thousands more watched the montages and tributes on television. But why?
 
The public fascination with celebrity is, in itself, fascinating.
When someone famous dies, their life is suddenly and simultaneously put under a microscope and projected onto a world-wide screen. Wars, conflicts and political debates are temporarily relegated to the back burner.
 
Maybe we are drawn to a human like ourselves who lived a life of fame and luxury so far removed from our own.
Or perhaps we feel some kind of a human connection that makes us care for a person with which we have no relationship. Unconsciously, we recognize our own frailties and strengths in those we will never meet.
Maybe we revere people for what they create, what they have contributed to our culture. It is not so much the person themselves, but more the reality of the words they added to our society.
So, when we dig deeper, maybe the loss of a celebrity is more than what it seems at the surface—a mindless obsession with entertainment—and is a way people instinctively ty to get closer together.
Just like when tragedies happen, the death of celebrities forces the world to get a little smaller.