Why so much celebrity worship?

Maybe I am getting to old but I don't remember society being so obsessed with celebrities. It seems as though people today can tell you more about a celebrities entire life than they can about (even) the most basic things.
Anthony Bourdain was a chef. That's it. I don't even know if he was a good one because I (much like the rest of the world) have never actually eaten anything he has cooked. So why all the sadness and sorry? Why the weird worship?

Society has become so celebrity obsessed. It is telling that people seem to know so little about anything important and so much about people that are famous for sex tapes.

Entertainment has become the new farming. People spend most of their time in front of some kind of device that they have no clue about the real world.
Example;
Yesterday my internet went out for about 2 hours. It was the third time in less than 24 hours. I was outside watering some plants before I started working on my cars. As I was standing their I noticed neighbors coming outside. Neighbors that I never see outside. They had that look of blinking daze that someone has when they first wake up. It was as if they had no idea what the sun looked like during the day and were confused by this strange bright light in the sky. One neighbor came up to me and asked if my internet was out. "I'm not sure. Let me ask my wife." I informed her it was out. We talked for a moment about how this has been an ongoing issue and she expressed her frustration at the whole thing. We exchange parting pleasantries and I went about my tasks. I thought to myself, if these people ever lost the internet for days or weeks they may actually just die.

They cannot seem to live in a world that many of us grew up in. A world where you DID things.