Celebrity culture is not new but it is the reason why some people are known and others are unknown throughout the pages of history. The fact that some people become better known than others has more to do with a desire for self-promotion or vanity than it does with personal worth or even contributions to humanity.

Brief history of celebrity culture

Any medium can be viewed as a vehicle for creating a celebrity culture. The famous religious books of the world's faiths are replete with examples of individuals who are well known by the general public. Some of the pharoehs of ancient Egypt set in motion devices to ensure their own fame for centuries to come. With every scientific advance names have become attached to discoveries.

Modern thirst for celebrities

Because history is basically a collection of biographical stories, celebrities have been continuously recorded since the beginning of the human ability to record the activities of human beings. However, with the discovery of electronic media coupled with the growth of the advertising industry, artificial importance has been created in order to promote a product or a service, rather than to record a purely biographical event. Consequently as more new products are launched on a world market that is constantly expanding, the need for more celebrities has in itself become an industry in itself.

Attention span

With the attention span of human beings in the developed world shrinking to shorter durations, the need for new celebrities is also increasing in demand. Unlike previous years when human beings were known for actual achievements and contributions, today human beings are becoming known for the most obscure reasons which has led to the popular expression concerning "fifteen minutes of fame". Such artificially created celebrities are soon forgotten while true celebrities are remembered throughout the ages.