Losing someone close to you can be the hardest time of your life. It can be a test of will, patience, and hope. Death affects us all in our own ways, and we each have a tendency to cope differently. The death of a celebrity, however, supposedly affects millions. News spreads fast, and celebrity news is instantaneous. It takes no time at all for the media to report on the death of someone important. People involved or related to said celebrities hardly get time to mourn before being swarmed by reporters, and cameras, and questions. Millions can feel the loss in a matter of minutes, and the media feeds off of it. So if the media and news convince millions to mourn, how are we actually affected? It may sound odd, but I don’t believe that millions care about the death of someone they’ve never met. So with an odd sense of curiosity, I went to find out.

Now lots of people will surely feel something when learning their favorite singer or actor died; it can be heartbreaking. Art speaks to people in a lot of ways, and it can even help people through rough times. When you learn that you will never be able to see their art again, and said art impacted you, it can feel like the loss of a loved one. However, is it them you’re mourning, or their work? Do we really care about the loss, or do we just care about things they offer us?

I created a short survey, with a list of twenty-three celebrities who have died in the past ten years. I simply asked everyone who took it, to rate on a scale of one to five how they were affected by the death of each celebrity. The results were about what I expected. With over a hundred responses, I can safely say, we don’t really care. The people with the highest ratings of five were Kobe Bryant and Cameron Boyce. Out of 117, 52 said they were “emotionally distraught” over the death of Kobe Bryant, and Cameron Boyce had 35. What I find humorous is how much the media blew up the deaths of Jahseh Onfroy (XXXTentacion), Jared Higgins (Juice WRLD), and Gustav Elijah Ahr (Lil Peep). But when given the survey, none of them broke over ten highest ratings. This could be due to the fact I only used their real names and purposely did not provide a picture. I wanted to see whether or not people could recognize by name only, and it looks like most people couldn’t. 

Other big stars also didn’t have much effect on the populous. Carrie Fisher got less than twenty high votes, and other big stars such as Prince, David Bowie, and Mary Tyler Moore didn’t even break ten. This tells me we aren’t as affected as the media says we are. 

Sure, the death of a star can hurt, especially when you had a personal connection, but is it worth it? Vannessa Bryant got virtually no time to mourn the death of her husband before being hounded by reporters and press. Some sources say she is so torn up to the point she can’t finish a sentence without bursting into tears. Their daughter just turned seven months old. Can we really say that we’re affected as much as Vannessa is? Then look at me, I was a fairly decent fan of Kobe, and was devastated to learn the news. However, I would not call myself “affected”. The news stung for a minute or two, but I got over it, and so will everyone else. Can we really call ourselves “emotionally distraught”? Personally, I don’t think so, and I think I’ve proven why.