In Alice Marwick's chapter in Status Update - "The Fabulous Lives of Micro-Celebrities," she discusses the concept of status and micro-celebrities on online platforms. She explains how status is someone's value and importance in the eyes of the world... It is what peers think of you. She further explains how people dedicate much of their time engaging in activities that seek status. One study found that undergraduates' use of Facebook was tied to their desire to be more popular. Social media technologies like Facebook have what Marwick calls "status affordances." They are what symbolize social status and are measures of importance. In the case of Facebook, this refers to likes, while in the context of Twitter, it would refer to the amount of followers someone has.
She further discusses the concept of achieved status versus ascribed status. Achieved status is when someone gains status based on their hard work or skills, while ascribed status is the social status someone is just born in to. As such, through the internet, people are easily able to become micro-celebrities through their ability to turn themselves into commodities through personas. A micro-celebrity, as Marwick explains, is the state of being famous to a niche group of people, and can also be seen as a behaviour, through which people present themselves as a celebrity despite who is paying attention.
Through social media platforms, people are easily able to become micro-celebrities. An example of this that I thought of are Instagram and Youtube famous people, who have a strong following and visibility based on the appealing pictures they post of themselves and their outfits. Youtube beauty guru, Bethany Mota, started out making makeup videos in her room, appealing to female pre-teens and teens who were interested in her beauty videos. In the years to come, her social media following grew, and she was turned from a micro-celebrity to a "celebrity" on Dancing With the Stars, even having her own clothing line with Aeropostale.
Taking into consideration the fact that people form personas online that often differ from who they are in real life, do you think measures like someone's following on social media platforms are accurate or fair measures of someone's social status?
I do think that now especially, having a large following on social media can be indicative of their social status as a micro-celebrity. Platforms like YouTube and Instagram, have now been used by many people to launch careers in fashion, music and comedy, which led to their gaining thousands, or even millions of followers. Currently, many budding artists and entertainers look to those original success stories to design their own online personas. However, now that becoming a social media celebrity has become a viable option, many people have tried to recreate personas of micro-celebrities. What has ended up happening is that those with the skills to properly market themselves and keep their following engaged have reached micro-celebrity status, while those who are not as dedicated to social media could not. Although there have been many micro-celebrities who create a presence solely to gain status, those who have endured on social media platforms over the years, and grown in online following have been the personas that are working hard to create for their followers.
ReplyDeleteI agree, one’s social status as a micro celebrity can be determined by how large their following on social media is. We can see how much technology and society has changed over the years. To become famous no more than 10 years ago, you would go audition for a show or movie and that usually your route to fame. Now, social media platforms are so powerful that someone can be discovered from the popularity of their Instagram, Youtube channel, or Twitter. For example, Justin Bieber was discovered through social media, because his mom posted his videos online, and he gained a lot of popularity. Celebrities have to be well liked- so having a large following (no matter how talented they are) if a significant indicator to how successful they will be. You see YouTubers who started out with only a couple hundred subscribers, who gained attention, and started getting millions of followers and subscribers. They are then picked up by big companies to share in their success. An example is Joe Santagato. He is Youtube comedian, who would make videos every week and started becoming more popular when we were in high school. Since then, he has over a million followers and is now working for Elite Daily creating content.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that the number of followers you have can determine one's status as a micro celebrity. Considering the world we live in today, we know how easy it is to just click the follow button. In addition, many jobs are created because companies would pay for advertising fees as well as getting lots of views on videos can also make you money. In addition, you also get stuff from companies that want you to advertise their stuff and they'll give you a coupon code. I do see how someone's number of following can be somewhat of a fair measure of someone's social status because having a high following would be hard to get unless people are actually interested in you and want to keep seeing the content you produce. This can show how popular you are outside of social media because you probably have a good personality.
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