Why do people care when celebrities pass away?

[Anonymous]

When part of my youth dies, then it touches me and I'm sad. In this case, I'm most sad for his family and friends, but I did not sleep well last night and I'm sure this is why.

I'm 54, same age as Perry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope this doesn’t sound too callous. With Matthew Perry’s death I am seeing all these people posting about how much they loved him - people who have never met him. If you’re one of these people, what drives your attachment to pop culture figures you don’t actually know?

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I always wonder why people like op post on the very day that we find out that someone we watched for so long died. Sure strangers die but, this person is a shared experience. For those of us who watched Friends it is a shared loss.. I am not in mourning but, I am saddened..

Op are you AI? Do you not have any feelings for others?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know but I was genuinely bummed by Steve Irwin’s untimely passing.

Steve was one of those rare exceptions. Most of us mourned the person more than an association to a time in our lives or a certain memory. That was personal sadness.

dp For some reason, although I am saddened by Steve Irwin's untimely death it really annoys me that the Irwin family act like their family is the only one struck by tragedy. Steve Irwin knew the risks he was taking and didn't live a very safe life. Not that he deserved to die but, there are far more tragedies and I am tired of being constantly reminded of their personal lost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope this doesn’t sound too callous. With Matthew Perry’s death I am seeing all these people posting about how much they loved him - people who have never met him. If you’re one of these people, what drives your attachment to pop culture figures you don’t actually know?

\


I always wonder why people like op post on the very day that we find out that someone we watched for so long died. Sure strangers die but, this person is a shared experience. For those of us who watched Friends it is a shared loss.. I am not in mourning but, I am saddened..

Op are you AI? Do you not have any feelings for others?

OP here. I posted because my social media was absolutely flooded by people saying they loved him and it felt very performative to me. I guess I could have phrased my question better and asked why people post about it, as if the death of a celebrity who is not even aware of their presence is somehow about them.

[Anonymous]

They don't. I had to google him

[Anonymous]

I remember my mom getting a call from my grandfather telling her that “the king was dead”. The day Elvis Presley died.

My dad watched Jeopardy and crushed every contestant. That theme song plays in my head. Alex Trebek died a year after my dad (who also died from cancer) and it brought up all kinds of sadness.

Sometimes it feels like the end of an era when the greats (musicians, actors, etc) of my grandparents or parents died.

[Anonymous]

People have a heart.

[Anonymous]

Gilda Radner’s death hit me hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I could have cared less until Anthony Bourdaine. I didn’t even understand why. I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that he committed suicide or what but his death stuck with me.

Same. I really liked him. My husband and I watched all of his shows. I think it was just such sadness that this guy that was just so full of life and burned so bright- turned out to be so sad inside.

[Anonymous]

Jimmy Buffett’s passing really hit me hard. I remember hearing Come Monday on the radio my Senior year in high school, and then wearing out the album Changes In Latitudes during my later college years, and going to over a dozen of his concerts through the decades. He was just such a positive, romantic, funny guy, great songwriter and showman, and part of the soundtrack of my life. His death was so sudden. We knew he was sick, but not how sick….and we all assumed he was getting better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I always thought this was bizarre (maybe kind of stupid?) too, until recently. Now that I'm older, when certain celebrities die it is like they take a piece of my life with them. When Prince died, I remembered the night in MS when my friend and I stayed up all night and she permed my hair -- we were listening to Purple Rain over and over. With Prince gone, it felt like that night was a world and lifetime away. I didn't really mourn Prince as I didn't know him, I mourned the end of an era and the end of a part of myself with it.

It doesn't surprise me that people would react to Matthew Perry like this -- (for better or for worse) his show Friends is a real cultural touchstone for a lot of people.

+1
I never felt this way until Heath Ledger and David Bowie died. Those really hit me hard. Also, Alex Trebek since I grew up watching Jeopardy every night with my family and do the same with my own kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't it part of the human condition to care?

A lot of people have memories connected to Friends. I have memories of crowding around a tv in a dorm room on Thursday nights and watching Friends. I think people also turned to Friends when they needed to be comforted or needed a laugh.

Saying that, I often feel upset when people I don't know. Murder, cancer, animal cruelty, child abuse, etc. It comes from a place of feeling that this shouldn't have happened and it shouldn't be this way. I don't have to know someone to feel something for them.

I think this. I’m 10 years younger than Matthew Perry was, and I remember Friends as one of the significant entertainment “seasons” of my life. My university best friend got “The Rachel” haircut. My university boyfriend and I made a point to watch the episode where Chandler and Monica got engaged. It was kind of a cultural moment of a generation. We’re all older and in different places in our lives now, but at least for myself, I don’t feel SO old that my peers or idols should be dying yet - my first parent to die only did so last year. It just feels wrong that he’s gone so young.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think people are mourning themselves getting older, when a little piece of their younger life is gone.
It's also a bit shocking when it's someone young, like Perry, despite the drug issues.

I agree with this. I was quite upset when Alan Rickman died, and I couldn't really figure out why at first. But I think it was a combination of the total lack of warning that he was even ill, plus lingering childhood dissatisfaction with how Snape's arc went in the books; I was really mad and upset back then about how he didn't survive Voldemort and get to attempt any happiness or improvement after the war and then Alan Rickman died in a weird fantasy/reality conflation (even though I was an adult by that point) where both the character and the actor got the very short end of a stick. It felt sad and unfair.

I was also very sad about the Queen dying last year; just one more comfortable thing gone that had been there my whole life, a tie to a bygone era that wasn't coming back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Showing my age…
When Lucille Ball died I cried. I remembered all the times I watched it with my brother and mom and the times we laughed together.

Pretty sure I’ll cry when Julie Andrews dies for the same reasons. Brings back memories with loved ones.

I remember my mother picking us up early from daycare crying the day Elvis died. She was a little extra with all that. but there were a lot of tears that day.

Whereas that one is an annual punchline for my friend and me: “Elvis died and we went to college” (the next day).

Princess Diana and JFK, Jr. - about our age - hit us harder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They don't. I had to google him

Are you 12? Your post is pointless.