Being "Famous" in the Internet Age

I've had to face facts recently: I'm not "interesting" to the world at large and I'm not exactly sad about it.

I'm not all that interesting, or different, or extraordinary in any way really, and to be honest you probably aren't either. The (sad?) fact of the matter is that not many people are going to end up being the next Einstein, Curie, or Darwin, most people aren't going to be born rich like Paris Hilton, or get a reality show because of a sex tape like Kim Kardashian. This sad fact is made more bearable by the knowledge that you might not be the most important, but you still might be relatively important, to some people, maybe, if you play your cards right.

I came to this realization while perusing the populace that twitter counts among its members (myself included). The grand majority of the plebeians that count twitter as their social network of choice are exactly like you and me in that they are completely and totally ordinary. Most of them live perfectly happy, boring, safe, middle of the road lives. That's alright though because -At the risk of sounding like a Negative Nancy straight out of communist Russia- everybody serves their place in society, however mundane that place might be. Not everyone is able to run a country or make important scientific discoveries or provide entertainment to the masses. The point is, we all aspire to be those people.

Now if you think I'm setting up some kind of argument for the veneration of the upper class, or putting down the working class in some way let me direct you to the big red X in the corner of this page, because you're wrong and stupid and you haven't let me finish. Keep reading.

It doesn't matter that a grand majority of us are going to live fairly normal, easygoing, and only mildly productive lives, because if we look at society as a whole a bunch of little people doing a lot of little things makes great progress. And if everyone tries their hardest to be like Einstein, Curie, or Darwin, then we have a collective that is...well...collectively accomplishing things.

I think that's why we have famous people in the world, not because they're inherently better than anybody, or because they did everything by themselves (indeed, most famous people didn't become famous alone) but because we need some shining example of "productivity" to aspire to be like in order to keep society chuggin' along.

"But Luc," you might say "hasn't this all been said before by cooler, more important people than you?" 


To which I might respond "Why yes, dear reader, you're right, perhaps you should read on."


Alternatively you might say something like "Well, duh". In which case I hate you shut up.


In any case that brings me to my next point of observation.


Remember those people on twitter I was talking about? The completely boring ones? Well a lot of them have dozens, maybe even hundreds of followers. And their tweets get retweeted, and they get dozens of @replies a day. They're "famous" in a way that people weren't able to be 20 years ago, and I find that completely fascinating. Fascinating that an otherwise average mother of 3 living in Kentucky can have 200 followers from..well...anywhere on the planet, that read and respond to her tweets, or read what she has to say on her blog and comment.

I don't exactly know how to express how excited that makes me. Not just because people might read what I have to say on my blog (hint) but because it opens up a channel through which "normal" people can be heard by the world at large in a manner that was impossible, or at least incredibly difficult, before the internet. It makes me wonder at what an average person can actually accomplish through social media, and it makes me think that maybe, just maybe, I'm not as average as I think I am.

So next time somebody tells you that they're a "social media expert" you can marvel at the implications that has in today's modern world. Right after you stop punching them in the face for describing themselves as a "social media expert".