Collin Palmer's Short Essay 'Teenage Obsession'

Teenage Obsession

Teenagers have been obsessed with celebrities for a long time and it’s not going to change. In his short essay response, Collin Palmer disagrees with Deborah King because she suggests that celebrity--obsessions can be unhealthy. I agree with Palmer, because of his argument, a lot of people have a celebrity they look up to, therefore they might also agree with Palmer.

Palmer talks about how Deborah King exaggerates teenagers’ having obsessions with celebrities. But in Palmer’s short essay response, he states, “I think that all the concern over celebrities in our lives is completely exaggerated”(14). Palmer probably thinks that Deborah King is exaggerating about the fact that we are “obsessed” with celebrities and this means

But the truth is that celebrities don’t really want to have a private life that is why they are celebrities, they want to be famous and they also want attention. Because attention equals money, that is what they want, money. King states, “The sad fact is that we are more enthralled by celebrities who have bad reputations than celebrities who are excellent role models.” But how does she know that this is true, since she provides little evidence. If teens want to have an “obsession” then they should be able to, there shouldn’t be people who want to stop teens from having an “obsession”. But the exception is if there is someone who is crazy and then they kill someone because of that, John Lennon is an example of death from a fan who was probably “obsessed” or something close to that. After an evening at the record plant on December 8th, 1980, Lennon and Ono (John Lennon’s wife) returned to their Manhattan apartment in a limousine at around 10:50 p.m. . They exited the vehicle and walked through the archway of Dakota when lone gunman Mark David Chapman shot Lennon four times in the back at close range. Lennon was rushed in a police cruiser to the emergency room of nearby Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival at 11:00 p.m. . Earlier that evening, Lennon had autographed a copy of Double Fantasy for Chapman. This here is very sad because an innocent man lost his life to a “maniac” a lot of people