If you’re reading this right now, it’s safe to bet you are NOT a celebrity, you’re on the internet, and you used social media to arrive here. Associate those 3 line items with the reality that you are in fact reading this right now, it’s also a safe bet that you’re a part of the problem. Social media has opened up a portal between the common folk and the celebrity in a way that has never before existed: direct access… and you’re obsessed with it. Even more so, you’re obsessed with the opportunity of negativity.
The general population keeps such a focused eye on celebrities that when any celebrity does something not to the watchful’s liking, they’re like a preformed lynch-mob waiting to destroy and relentlessly bash them to a pulp. Except you fail. And you’re too dumb to realize you have failed the minute you attempted to try. And why it is you lost in a much larger way than just your self-righteous attempts to “hate on” a celebrity on the internet. The more the general population hates a celebrity on the internet, the more famous and potentially valuable you have just made them. By hoping to sully their name and kill their career, you breathed new life into it. You lose.
The video below is amazing because it actually explains that very concept, all in extremely basic and plain English. The basis is focused around a video game designer, but don’t let that turn you off. Every aspect of this video creates parallels and bridges to pop culture elements you know extremely all too well.
This Is Phil Fish
Pretty profound stuff when it’s laid out like that. Though this video only focuses on the idea of internet celebrities, it doesn’t make it any less applicable to the already established media celebrity. The truth in that resides in the fact that you largely gain access to those celebrities via the internet, regardless of where or how their fame originated.
Appeasement is a large part of life on any level. Give out that which is desired, more so not because it’s for best interest of the common good, but because it neutralizes a possible backlash of negativity. In the life of a celebrity, this is exactly what their life is comprised of when it comes to the vocal majority. Give them what they want, not because it’s what everyone wants or needs, but because it’s because it’s what the vocal majority wants, and even worse, feels they deserve. The minute the appeasement stops, the celebrity perception changes. They’re a villain. And contrary to public belief, far more popular as a villain than a celebrity who never rocks the boat. There’s no entertainment with “good people”. There’s no opportunity for negativity. The video makes a bulleted list showing exactly why you always fail to bring down hated celebrities. Remove “Internet” from the heading and the first bullet from the list, and you’ve got the internet’s effect on an already established celebrity.
You slingshot their fame light-years ahead of where they were, when they were who you approved of them being.
The simple fact is, if any one of us had the chance to opt into a life of luxury and essentially be able to afford to buy our way through any situation in life, good or bad, the vast majority of people would do it. That probably rings truer now than ever with increasing economic hardships via personal debt and low-paying jobs in increasingly flooded markets. Living your new life within that kind of inflated pay grade, you can bet that lifestyle comes along with a level of fame and a stamp of celebrity. At that moment, you become a living anomaly. You are now a minority with virtually no limitations, living a lifestyle that essentially opens all doors at all times, and everyone in middle and lower classes are interested in everything you do, personally, professionally, or otherwise. You are everything typically never associated with being a part of a minority group. Once your celebrity state of being is established, it’s time to attach the strings that go along with it: public perception. Are you being the celebrity the public THINKS you should be? If you’re not, you choose to embrace being the villain, and endure the perpetual floods of negative attention, increased monetary income and exposure opportunities.
You, the collective general populous, lose because you believe you deserve to dictate what it means to “be famous wrong”. You lose even worse because you take to the virtual streets, making the very thing you’ve just come to hate, the most popular thing on the information superhighway. You create and drive their digital evolution. Twitter and facebook posts evolve into blog and media website write-ups, which evolve to TV spots and celebrity interviews, and because our system of journalism has become so pathetic and bottom-feeder attentive, it shows up on prime time in national news outlets. You lose. And due to you being too dumb to realize it and not being able to help yourself, you’ll continue to lose. The celebrity always wins because you lose at being a “normal person right”.
To that, your most hated celebrities graciously respond: “Thanks, idiots.”
At this point, I’d just love to hear what you have to say about all of this. Get at me in the comments and let’s see what everyone thinks.
Hit me up on facebook, twitter and instagram and rest assured you’ll never see me bring up any mindless, pop culture, pointlessly-viral, celebrity fads. These are safe places.
By: Eli Rebich