Celebrities and Private Lives in the Public Eye

Should Celebrities be allowed to have a private life when in public? By this I mean, should they be able to do whatever they want in public or should the try to present themselves with a level of respect and decency that is expected of everyone else?

Personally I think 'privacy in public' is an oxymoron. I believe that no matter who you are famous or not you should always be aware that while you are in Public anyone can and will be watching. I think in public people should conduct themselves with a manner of respect regardless of your standing. I think when celebrities complain about their lack of privacy in public places that is an expectation of special treatment because of who they are.

I believe, anyone with a level of public influence has a responsibility to set an example. Children and impressionable adults for that matter, do not base 100% of their behaviour on their parents and parents are not present 100% of the time in a child's life. It is a fairly basic psychological principle that as we interact with others we base our behaviour on that of others we see around us.

I think in any job where public presence is part of the remit you should be expected to conduct yourself accordingly. There have been a number of cases involving celebrities and their twitter accounts, now arguably Twitter is the ultimate example of how people treat privacy in public.  There are millions of conversations between people made openly back and forth between accounts, which i have mentioned previously on this blog, anything you tweet other than through Direct Messages can and will be seen by the world.  In the same way you wouldn't necessarily walk down the street where everyone knew who you were and say something intensely personally - for a non famous person the easiest example here would be to imagine living in a small town where everyone knew each other and everyone knew you, in that situation you wouldn't walk down the street with a friend and have an open conversations about say visiting the Gynaecologist and some rash he was giving you advice on, while in ear shot of people around you.