“Just keep walking through those flames until you find a way to take them as a compliment.”
When reading ‘Kids, the Internet and the End of Privacy’ by Nussbaum I was shocked at how many of the interviewees felt the same about their so called bad press with what they post on the internet. I feel like a lot of my posts have to do with my disagreement with the things written in these articles but personally I don’t believe that any attention is good attention. Whether your peers or online community members are slandering you, what would make someone take that as a positive ‘polite expression’ as per dictionary.com? I’m also one who doesn’t believe that imitation is the purest form of flattery. Maybe this is because I don’t like people copying off of me nor do I copy off of others. If I like something the person is wearing and purchase it, my purchase is not based solely on the fact that the person was wearing it, but that I liked that piece of clothing. I also don’t make rude comments or slander someone because I’m jealous of them or are secretly complimenting them. I am doing just that, being mean. There is also the strong possibility that I missed the generation gap that allows for “kids these days” to think that everyone is their biggest fan, whether they hate them or love them.
I loved the new perspective on indulging personal information on the internet by Clay Shirky. He said that, “Whenever young people are allowed to indulge in something old people are not allowed to, it makes us bitter. What did we have? The mall and the parking lot of the 7-Eleven? It sucked to grow up when we did! And we’re mad about it now.” That’s something I’ve never really thought about, that adults hate how we are over-exposing ourselves (with personal information and nude photos) because they weren’t allowed to be as free as we are today. The need to be wild and free is something that I think everyone has ingrained in them at birth. So maybe it is extremely plausible that the older generations are a bit tweaked because we (I say that with myself on the outside of the we) have been given more opportunities for success through internet famedom than them.
In our newly found famedom there must be a way to measure levels of celebrity. Does each individuals popularity lie within the positive things they have done, or perhaps some type of notoriety? According to Marwick and Boyd’s artilcle ‘To See and Be Seen’ fame is “….a binary, personal quality: you are either a celebrity, or you’re not.” You’re either in, or you’re out. One day you could be a youtube celebrity and the following day everyone is ogling the two young Nicki Minaj fans on the Ellen Degeneres Show. With the rising levels of online media popularity for users, they must be very careful what they post, or how they “act.” To some extenet, most media users who wish to become widely known online are putting on some type of show. They know what will capture the largest audience and they will do just that to obtain their goal. Just like Kitty Ostapowicz who has taken nude photos of herself or Xiyin who admits to changing what she writes for her online admirers so that she does not offend them. So what she really does is censor her true self in order to appease to the largest group of people possible.
Maybe I don’t get it. Maybe I am just a lost soul in the newest generation of online user cohorts. Maybe I would be considered insane or odd by most people today because of my lack of connection with internet use. Don’t get me wrong, I love Facebook, but I find myself using it less and less. I have also noticed that I tend to use it in different ways than my friends. I typically log on to update a status (every so often) or keep in touch with a friend at another school; this method proves much easier and faster than writing a letter. I rarely look at others’ photos unless my closest friends are in them. I just don’t find myself spending countless hours that I will never get back “stalking” other people online. Which brings me to my conclusion on how I don’t understand how people can become famous or well-known because of something miniscule and insignificant they do online. Unless what they are doing is inspiring, positive, helpful or witty in some way, what use do I have of them updating their FB status 12 times a day about how they hate their now ex-boyfriend for what he did. Oh wait, now they love their boyfriend and they’re going to get married next week.
