“The medium is the message.” Each development in communicative technology, each new medium, has within itself certain inevitable progressions. It inevitably evolves in a certain way according to its nature. So any specific expression within a given medium is not that important, because ultimately it is going to evolve according to its own nature, and THAT is the message, not some particular manifestation. So with the development of television and all of that, which represents the past-present medium, there were certain inevitable results. One of these was the celebrity culture that is so apparent today. With television, ‘characters’ are not left to the imagination, as it was with text. Rather, any given individual or scene represented with video is about THAT person. Inevitably, then, we as a society would develop preferences for certain archetypal characters which would come to be associated with certain faces, or individuals. The Internet is laying the foundation for a new medium. Let us say this is the present-future medium, as it is somewhat in existence today, but has only just begun its evolution. One aspect of its inevitable evolution is a massive expansion of the celebrity culture. The previous medium, based on television and movies, was essentially monopolized by a few large corporations. Beyond this, the essential point is that there was a limited quantity of material that would actually be produced and viewed by the public at large. This leads to a small, aristocratic celebrity culture that the majority of the population is jealous of, and occupies the minds of the societal masses. With the E-volution, these restrictions do not exist. For a time, the society will have a hard time realizing and taking advantage of the new possibilities, and will use these new possibilities to serve the purposes of, and propogate, the television culture and its ideals; this is where we are now. Inevitably, though, the society realizes that anyone can be a ‘celebrity.’ We do not need to be limited to only a few celebrities which are nationally or internationally recognized. There will be more and more talented people who desire to live what we may call a ‘celebrity lifestyle.’ What to do with this influx of interesting and talented people, potential celebrities, that we are seeing today, and will continue to see more and more of as time goes on? With this expansion of the celebrity culture will come a localization of the celebrity culture. There are something like 300 million citizens in America today. Let us say there are 30 real celebrities in America, though the number could differ depending on how you look at it, but these differences are inconsequential in terms of the point I’m making. This means that there is one celebrity for every 10 million citizens. The overwhelming majority of the fans of these celebrities will never have any interaction, letalone significant interaction, with these people, despite the fact that they would love that. Let us now consider an America that has 30,000 ‘celebrities,’ about 1,000 times more than we have today. This may seem strange, but here each ‘celebrity’ corresponds to 10,000 citizens, which would in general be localized. Now you have a much more manageable celebrity-fan situation, where the ‘celebrities’ have the same type of exposure, if not more, that constitutes a celebrity in our minds, and the corresponding lifestyle and fan adoration, yet with a realistic ability for the fans to interact with the people they are fans of. As I say, this new societal structure would in general sort itself out according to locality. There will be a development of many well-developed ‘niches,’ based on the great diversity of interests among people. These niches will overlap in certain ways, and will have their own corresponding ‘celebrities.’ Based on various factors of appeal, each ‘celebrity’ will have their own mass of following, in terms of numbers and geographical range, as well as cross-niche appeal. Their primary base will be local, but they could potentially expand to large areas. Now when we think of the celebrity lifestyle, there are a few things to consider. It is partially based on their level of exposure and popularity, which we already addressed would be fulfilled. It is also partially based on the LIFESTYLE of the celebrity, which we will inevitably discover is available to all of us basically. The other thing to consider is that it is not only about BEING a celebrity. Being friends with, or dating, a celebrity is also very exciting. With this expansion of the celebrity culture, and its corresponding localization and intimacy, the prospect of becoming friends with, or dating, a celebrity will become very realistic. What this means is that everyone will essentially be able to live the celebrity lifestyle, whether or not they themselves are one of the actual ‘celebrities.’ Right now the situation is that there are a few people living lifestyles that most of the rest of the citizenry wishes they were living. As this E-volution occurs, the development of the new medium through the Internet, we will all have any sort of lifestyle we would like available to us. As it has been implied in my mind, but a potential objection I can see being raised, all of this does NOT imply the stereotype of getting drunk every night and doing various wreckless thing. This is only one possibility, that in some people’s minds has become a stereotype. The point is that there will be no limits to our lifestyles, and we will be able to take that freedom of choice and do with our lives whatever we wish, with no limits.
Hopefully we stop idolizing others and we begin idolizing ourselves. Not in an ignorant manner, but in a manner that allows for the ideal development of all people on all levels. A local celebrity culture is no more widespread than it being known within a group of friends. Local musicians are a sort of 'celebrity' along with people who stick out amongst the rest. I can see this in my town alone. Every one knows about the man who wears orange every day and plays flute in the middle of town every day. Every one knows about the homeless man that has crazy dreads and wears a cape around. With this point, I feel like its hard to develop a 'following' based on talent alone without the appropriate medium. The medium has to be powerful within itself for the talent to be revealed to the correct amount of audience. YouTube is one of these mediums, however the medium implies only non-locality. Chances are no one that lives around you will ever recognize you as that guy on YouTube. It'd be cool to experience a rapidly more open societal lifestyle, i.e. people doing all sorts of various activities as opposed to the societal 'norm' of doing things. It would be cool if we could find a way to encourage every one to start doing their own thing, to encourage their own sense of creativity and further develop their unique outlook on life. It is a shame of how closely related we all seem to be when there is so much potential for exploration. Who can free the masses from their self-limiting tendencies and open them up to a vaster universe of possibilities innate within their own being? Whoever it is, they have to have opened themselves up first.
You are correct in what you say, but as I say, the 'Internet Society' has only just begun its development. People are so far unable to organize the energies required to bring all of this about in an efficient enough manner to actualize it. If you are interested, let me link you to another thread I made, that is related to all of this, and addresses the point you raise. There are two primary posts. The original post, and on the last page of the thread I make another post that expands upon it. I title the thread "Evolution Of Internet," because this societal evolution I speak of is very much related to the Internet, but the Internet is necessarily going to evolve beyond what it currently is. In that thread are some of my ideas for it, and I am very serious about bringing it about. I have also been developing this idea further in other ways, that I have not posted about. http://forum.grasscity.com/general/1025204-evolution-internet.html
This has probably been true for as long as we have been able to tell stories, and is not so much an inevitability of televised medium as it is of medium in general. Stories can be broken down into structures, characters into archetypes, and in a sense every story may have already been told when put into analytical narrative terms. Yet despite this, we find new ways of expressing the same structures and archetypes that can continue to stimulate us. A new medium is one way that is possible. I struggle to see this as a positive. Not everyone considered a celebrity is talented. Further to that, there is no reason to expect that this expansion of celebrity will not be coopted by corporate interests, which has been a growing problem in my estimation across all available media. Our society having consumed so much banal, lowest-common-denominator entertainment, even freed of corporate control it is likely not completely free of corporate influence as a result of our consumption of corporate media. It seems you think that with more celebrities, there would be a lesser capacity of people to be fans of more celebrities. There is probably a limit to a person's ability to follow celebrities, but I think the imagined effect it would have on celerity-fan relations is negligible. More celebrities would mean more "elites." Any celebrity visited on a person is going to cause them to prioritize their time, which is likely what limits their interaction with fans in the first place. I simply don't see the logic in dicussing the internet and then insisting that celebrities will sort into localities. Well-develop niches does sound like a natural consequence of such a thing, but that's exactly the kind of truth that would draw in fans from outside regions.
If your talking about how much easier it is to become an overnight sensation nowadays, then I completely understand. Look at magnet boy, that douche has absolutely no talent and he was on Fox news, not that it takes much to be on Fox news, but still for a no talent hack of his age that is an accomplishment. Another noteworthy example is OFWGKTADGAFLLBBLSBFBN. They get press like nobody's business. OFWGKTADGAFLLBBLSBFBN came out of nowhere and just took the music industry by hurricane. These dickheads have convinced a large group of people that they actually have talent, although I'm not sure that they do have any talent, they're still getting press and getting money. Sure creating your own music, videos and artwork is amazing but if it sucks, it sucks. These people revel in ignorance. They are ignorance incarnate. But then again to each his own. If people actually like this then that's good for them.
Perhaps having all these people feeling like celebrities, will water down celebrity culture so as to appear more like it is - not important. The media/internet seems to be able to sustain as much output as can be produced, so everyone and his cat can have a go at putting themselves out there and seeing what it feels like. There's so much tendency to follow people though, for the most ridiculous of reasons sometimes, as if it creates an association with this feeling of being closer to celebrity you mentioned. People are obsessed with technology though. I see people staring at their devices constantly, even while they walk. The need to be 'in touch' has become so strong too. People have always had a need to know what's happening around them, but what with everyone's extended Facebook family to keep in touch with, twitter people what's going on at every moment of the day, it's changing us in ways we can't really comprehend because it's happening too fast to really be able to step back yet. When we do I hope we like what we see.
What we see here (in the attachment to small little gizmos) is thus man's innate tendency to over-grasp and thereof cling onto the very little reality they know. To me, it comes down to that as a society, we are more scattered brained then we have ever been with a progression going further into it. Whatever happened to being able to sit alone in a dark room without feeling the need to fasten onto something? Whatever happened to nice long walks in the day or time, not because you're stressed and trying to do something, but for the shear act in of itself? Whatever happened to open communication, where people put their emotions aside to truly open their ears to what is being spoken? Whatever happened to us? *sigh*
I think that ultimately all of this change that is being produced with the advent of various technological advances will bring humanity to a completely new level, and will be a very very good thing. I think at this stage, because we have not yet understood and evolved the new technologies/mediums, as I mentioned in OP, it can lead to some 'artificial' type of living/interacting, you might say. But this is only a stage. When this all develops as I am seeing it will develop, it will be incredible, and enable us to live life and interact in ways we could have never dreamed of before. It is a process, though. But soon enough, it will be like a switch has turned on. If you are aware of how it works, and take advantage of the possibilities, you will directly see the transformation brought about by these new developments instantly. I very much look forward to these developments, but it seems clear to me that this external fruition will come about as I can develop the functioning of this 'ideal reality' within myself. As I understand it within, it will reflect without. And I may play a very significant role in actually bringing it about, as well, since I don't really see other people who seem to be able to effectively and efficiently organize the massive amounts of energy available in the world today, as Timothy Leary would put it. So as I understand it, I suppose I should do whatever I can to help bring it about externally, as well.