The Internet Celebrity

In class on Wednesday we discussed the creation of the “internet celebrity.” This is essentially someone who became famous largely, or entirely, because of their behavior online. Like the fat guy dancing to the “Numa Numa” video which helped launch him (and Youtube) into superstardom. Then there is Tom, the guy who made MySpace. He triggered MySpace so that everyone had him as a friend. His profile was visited more than any major celebrity’s. That’s one class of internet celebrity, the rocket-ship fame; they do one thing that shoots them into fame.

Then there are these celebrities who have some fame to begin with, but the viral nature of the internet gives them a platform on which to spread their name. Paris Hilton, who was kind of famous for her family name, became an internet superstar with a video that has been downloaded online more times then some full length feature films. Meghan McCain, daughter of US Senator and twice failed presidential candidate John McCain, finds herself in a similar category. She has some fame to begin with, but uses the internet to create her own brand. She is someone who is savvy enough to use the internet to groom their celebrity. She has 70,000 Twitter followers, and each got a shock this week she described Twitter with: "What once was fun now just seems like a vessel for harassment." She was criticized this week for a twitpic photo that was a little too revealing for some of her followers.

Like all internet celebrities though, any publicity is good publicity. Her photo had CNN and other news sources buzzing about her “deleting her account” and “unsure of what McCain would do next.” Wow. What a world we live in now where CNN, a world famous news organization, does a story on why someone might delete their Twitter. Of course the news played right into what these internet celebrities want (or need): more followers on Twitter, more page visits, or more friends on Facebook. There is a direct correlation between someone’s “stats” in the above categories and where they fall in the internet celebrity/social media world. The higher those numbers, the more reputable you are.

Some people then try to make themselves internet celebrities. They may try and bolster their online credentials to appear to be more popular then they really are.
A “friending or following addict” is not the person to blame them for doing this however. The social media culture puts a tremendous amount of online credibility based on how popular you are.

Soon internet celebrities will be a dime a dozen. Try something original to become famous, don’t just friend a whole bunch of people. Get stuck in a hot air balloon or something really weird.