World Record Breaking

Search up "World Record" on Google News and you'll get an influx of news articles pertaining to persons and their endeavours to get their names in the Guiness Book of World Records. e.g. here.

My question is, why is everyone so dead set on breaking these records? Nowadays, breaking world records is quite a common occurence. I don't know if it's because I wasn't that informed back then, but I remember finding it really neat when someone broke a new record. They were the top in the world in that particular category.

Today, you can break a record for just about anything. What's the fun in that? They're no longer an awe-inspiring accomplishment, just people who seem desperate in their means to attain fame and recognition.

As the saying goes, no publicity is bad publicity. And the majority of us do desire and crave attention, so why not do it in the most extravagant (and non-boisterous) way?