Mirror News Columnist

Time travel just became possible, and al those desperate to escape the Snooki, Speidi, and Kardashian take-over, get in line! Well, not really, but it's a nice thought; having the ability to get back to a time when celebrities were people who actually displayed praise-worthy talent. Or maybe we'd be able to go forward to when a person's status of fame isn't synchronized with their number of hits on Twitter.

Nevertheless, we're stuck in a YouTube world of artificial fame and blind obsession and we only have ourselves to blame.

Whether you're getting email updates on your phone about the latest celebrity relationships or setting your DVR to record the newest episode of Jersey Shore, you play your part in creating the booming sensation of people who are famous for just being famous. It's the attention we unconsciously give to the kind of people who haven't shown any significant reason for being known. Yet, somehow, they end up on the same red carpet with A-list celebrities. Take Beyonce and Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi at the 2010 Grammy awards, for example. Having a reality TV "star" sharing the same paparazzi crowd as a 10-time Grammy award winner is the standard to which we are increasingly growing accustomed.

Since the MTV show The Real World aired in the 1990s, we've willingly devoted hours to the most ironically named genre, Reality TV. From Big Brother to Flavor of Love to Keeping up with the Kardashians, these shows continue to exist because we provide the ratings that scream "demand" to television networks. They're just people lined up eager to catch the fame bug without ever offering any commendable skill or talent, but we obsess over their every move anyway.

Now that the recently ended MTV hit The Hills so graciously left us following the trials and tribulations of Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt (a.k.a. "Speidi") we've come to accept the trend of overexposed people way after their claim to fame ends. Although Heidi was a pioneer staple on the show, her boyfriend Spencer is a perfect example of being in the right place at the right time. This less than ordinary couple now has a book called How to be Famous, a complete slap in the face to all the veteran celebrities who tried for years to make a name for themselves.

It may seem only fair that the amount of stress in our lives justifies our desire for mind-numbing television. But where does the spawn of hundreds of reality shows transcend from entertainment to becoming an actual reflection of our deteriorating morals?

Just examine the loves of our sex-tape starlets, Paris Hilton- who made the lists of both "most overrated" and "most overexposed" celebrities- and self-made millionaire Kim Kardashian. The Kardashian queen placed number on on the list of highest paid reality stars of 2010. With a clothing line, perfume, self-based TV series, endorsement deals, and a guest spot on this season's The Apprentice, she proves not only that we neglect to judge people on their moral behavior, but we gladly give our money to support their unstoppable climb to artificial stardom.

From media outlets that run every other half-hour during the day to the overused websites guiltily saved under "favorites" in our computer, we are children with candy when it comes to finding out what celebrities say, wear, buy, think, and eat.

Before the heated debate about the media being at fault for this celebrity obstruction begins, let's be reminded that the media has only one ultimate self-serving goal of high ratings for high income. The moment we stip obsessing over the lives of the mentally-prosthetic figures on our screen, the sooner the force-fed exposure is denied.

Granted, the last year or so did give us some unforgettable characters that lived up to their hype. Lady Gaga selling millions of albums and breaking a record for billions of views on the internet did lead to a Grammy. It's just unfortunate we can't provide that same never-ending publicity and status of celebrity to people like Pilot C.B. "Sully" Sullenburger for landing a fully-boarded plane safely on the Hudson River.

But if that's too ambitious, maybe we can start by creating a new name in order to avoid the occurrence of someone name "The Situation" being on the same list as someone named Johnny Depp.