Today at the store, I overheard a 20 something-year-old girl loudly sigh and complain to her companion; " I don't even understand why those Kardashians are famous, they're all so stupid." In her hand, ironically enough was one of Kylie Jenner's signature nail colors or whatever nail polish she put her name on.

This made me chuckle, but then I thought, "She's right, why are those Kardashians famous?" The answer came to me as I was perusing our local record store for something to listen to in lieu of Pandora. Looking at some of the covers of iconic records by the Rolling Stones, and Santana, and Queen, I caught myself comparing these rock icons to our modern standards of beauty. These people are famous for their talents, not their looks, shock factors, or sex tapes. We'll leave Mick Jagger's pants or Jim Morrison's lack thereof out of this one.

The society of 30 years ago was one in which some sort of talent was a prerequisite to fame, but today, if you don't have the looks, a sex tape or a reality show, good luck getting anywhere in show biz. Sure, there are exceptions that made it to the top based on talent alone. But they were the underdogs, the ones nobody saw coming (Susan Boyle anyone?).

In today's society, we are living in an era that is defined by viewer ratings, a number of followers we have, the amount of likes that we get and the number of "friends" that we have. Now that's not always a bad thing, since these social media platforms can be used for very good things as well as the bad ones they're known for. But, it is the reason that the people who represent us as a society are people like the Kardashians, The real housewives of _____ city, The Duggars (21? Kids and Counting), and Octomom. These people have no real talent, yet we as a society made them famous. These people are the grossest misrepresentation of us as a society, yet more American schoolchildren know who Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are than who Anne Frank, Malala Yousafzai and Nelson Mandela are.

We watch the reality shows of the celebrities that shock us the most because for some absurd reason we care about their lives and what they're doing. Then we're upset that they're famous despite their lack of talent. But the kicker is, we buy their products. And not even their products. Just cosmetics, perfumes and clothing that they get paid to slap their name on. And yet we gripe that these people with no talent are famous. They may not have any talent, but they sure are smart. Various reality TV (who even invented that?) stars found a way to make millions of dollars off one of the stupidest societies on the planet. So please, if you don't want these types of people to be famous, don't support them.

I personally do not own one of Kylie Jenner's lip kits, and I never will . I don't watch reality TV (unless the Food Network counts). And I'm not saying I'm holier than thou, I'm just saying that the solid hour I spent standing in the rain watching and supporting one of Ellensburg's up and coming bands, Cobrahawk, was a better use of my time than watching an episode of 21 Kids and Counting would have been. Instead of being upset that these "talentless" people are famous, go support the talented ones. Go catch a cold from watching an indie concert in the rain, be a model for your aspiring photographer friends. Read books that inspire you, and support your artist friends. We choose who we make famous, so go support the people you want to represent us as a society.