For one night, a group of women on this campus stood in awe of Steven Hill, member of MTV’s “The Real World: Las Vegas.”

This is a guy who was created into a sex-hungry male slut by the show’s executives and made into a semi-celebrity by over zealous female fans after the show ended.

He wouldn’t have even stepped foot on campus if he hadn’t sent in a short tape about himself and been selected to be on the show, yet he becomes the typical guy we see on our TVs in almost any “reality” show.

Sometimes these pseudo-celebrities are brought to the highest pedestals, creating undeserved obsessions from people who have never met them and know them only through a persona crafted by savvy television executives desperate for scathing content.

Obsessing over celebrities can be not only annoying, but also unhealthy. And in many cases, the line between fan and fanatic becomes so blurred it’s hard to tell which one people fall under. I had a few friends in high school who flirted with that point.

Four of my girl friends were so obsessed with the boy band N’Sync they learned the entire dance to one of the group’s music videos so they could compete in a chance to win tickets to an upcoming concert.

OK, this seems fine for 12 and 13-year-old girls but these girls were 17 and 18. One of the girls even had a picture of Justin Timberlake on her graduation cake and could be filled with rage when she heard the name Britney Spears (because the famous pair were dating at the time).

At one point, I was afraid I’d turn on the 5 p.m. news to see Timberlake had been attacked from a person hiding in the bushes. The next scene would show the crazed fan being dragged away by a SWAT team.

Another MTV show called “Fanatic” gave viewers a look at crazed people who almost wet themselves over the chance to meet their favorite celebrity.

MTV chooses the craziest people who have rooms covered with their posters, pets named after them and wear the same clothes as these celebrities.

What makes these people so special? I’m sure the women on this campus could find a guy who is just as attractive and has a real personality, unlike Hill and the boy bands.

In a way it is our own fault for creating these false images for people who are no more deserving than you and I.

We make someone we know from our TV screens and the movies into our own ideal person who may be nothing like the image we have created for them.

It’s hard to get people interested in individuals who really should get the attention. If a person on The Daily Eastern News staff were to win a Pulitzer prize I can bet there would be less of a request to hear that person speak than there was for a “Real World” cast member.

Students get speeches each day from people called teachers who deserve a little more respect than they get.

I’m not saying we should put up posters of our math teacher on our wall, but we need to get a grip of who really matters in the world.