Singer's dominance escalated Swift-ly. Maybe it's too much of a good thing

The first and most important thing to say is that I have nothing against Taylor Swift. I really don't.

In fact, she's been a presence in my family since the niece who turned 20 this week was an early Swiftie at age 5 or 6. I have a favorite memory of hearing that child absently singing "You Belong With Me" while she was playing in her room. And another of her dancing around the living room while Swift was performing on some awards show or other.

And Swift has indirectly helped the fortunes of at least one local business. "Thank God for Taylor Swift," Lloyd Thoburn said as he talked with me about the success of his wife's downtown record store, Hub City Vinyl. When her latest album was released, he said, people were lined up around the block to get their vinyl copies.

But these days, I'd love to go a day or two without seeing Taylor Swift in the news cycle. Which is difficult since our parent company actually hired somebody to cover Taylor Swift 24/7.

Does everyone really care if she dates an athlete any more than we cared about the crowd of actors and musicians populating her lengthy list of exes? Do we need all those photos of her at football games? Or a critique of what she wore to dinner? Must we analyze every Swift song for clues to which significant other it's about?

(Sorry, Carly Simon; you've been displaced as the queen of ambiguous lyrics.)

This year, Forbes magazine named her the fifth most powerful woman in the world. (At the top is Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union.) People magazine put her at the top of its Most Intriguing People of the Year list. And now she's Time's Person of the Year.

Well, that escalated swiftly.

But to give that last title a little perspective, Time's nod has gone to everyone from Winston Churchill and FDR (and 13 other American presidents) to Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, the Ayatollah Khomeini and Wallis Simpson. It's about how much influence you've had, not always the quality of it.

That being said, considering last year's Person of the Year was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski, nobody could be blamed for wondering how in the world Time's staff came up with this year's list of finalists — which included the Hollywood strikers and Barbie, who isn't even a real person.

None of that in any way diminishes Swift's abilities or her appeal.

But maybe things have gotten a little out of hand.

Addiction to celebrity is nothing new. Consider the phenomena of Frank Sinatra. Elvis. The Beatles. Marilyn Monroe. Princess Diana. Madonna. You get the picture. (Lots of pictures, actually, particularly of Diana.)

And now with the aid of social media to augment the ubiquity of the current crop of luminaries, it's next to impossible to, well, shake it off.

There's a definite downside to that. There's apparently a group of Russian propagandists co-opting Swift's image — and those of other celebrities — to spread anti-Ukrainian disinformation. And recently bounced Congressman George Santos crooned a few Swift lyrics on his new favorite platform, Cameo — where he is, ironically, in huge demand.

There's nothing wrong with loving a tune by Taylor Swift. But the attention she's drawing seems rather out of proportion considering the more serious issues facing the planet, which sadly says more about us than about her.

The opioid crisis has not gone away. Educators are reporting more behavioral problems among students (the kids who are our future, by the way). The number of Americans suffering from depression has soared. Many of our leaders are so busy fighting each other for dominance they're doing little to solve real problems. Our country more divided than it's been at any point since 1860. And two major wars are overshadowing events all over the world.

On the other hand, it could be that the obsession with Taylor Swift and other celebrities is an escape valve. If we're focusing our attention on them, we don't have to think about the other stuff.

But somebody has to, right?

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This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: You can't shake off the Taylor Swift phenomenon