First, the other day I was sitting at Panera working on some film festival stuff, and this guy comes in. He was dressed in some stereotypical homeless garb, so I instantly assume he is homeless. He is holding a giant plastic BW3's cup when he comes in the door, stands and looks around, goes over to the pop machine and fills up his cup, and walks out. For some reason this is the most incredible thing I have seen all week, maybe it's just a slow week.
That was completely irrelevant I just keep thinking about it.
Anyway, so I'
ve been thinking a lot about this whole celebrities-on-social-networking-sites phenomenon. Mostly because Taylor Swift and David Archuleta are on my Twitter feed (is that what it's called?) and I am friends with them on Facebook. I think it is so sweet that celebs are on the sites, and clearly 63,000 others agree with me. This was actually sparked by Taylor's recent facebook status: "Trying to convince Abigail's parents to let her come to New York with me. I know the drill, we've been doing this since we were 14." and I was instantly like, oh Abigail from the song "Fifteen", that's cool that they are still friends. So I'm reading the comments on her status and only ONE other person mentioned that, so I was proud that I knew ALL the words to her songs, and then instantly depress
ed when I remembered I was 22. But I think that's the flipside of stars on Twitter/Facebook, it's humbling. Either someone like me who knows all the words and appreciates people foremost for their natural talent and the skill in songwriting, etc. Or the more stalkerish people who know her favorite kind of french fry and what day she gets her period. Especially when it comes to Taylor Swift, everyone thinks oh I am her biggest fan! and then you go on Facebook and... no, you are definitely NOT her biggest fan.
So I'm seeing possibilities:
One, we start seeing a dramatic increase in artists who get big after getting their start from a die-hard online following, like Secondhand Serenade, Ronnie Day, and Savannah Outen [who you can see at OIFF on July 27th!]
Two, fans start getting more stalkerish trying to outdo others and really be the biggest fan.
I'm having flashes of King of Comedy here. [If you haven't seen it, basically Robert DeNiro is a crazed fan of Jerry Langford (a Jay Leno type host/comedian), who fantasizes an entire friendship with him because he knows him so well, and after real Jerry's repeated rejections, he kidnaps Jerry and steals his show for a night.]
Also, while doing research for OIFF, I came across this website:
http://www.contactanycelebrity.com
that absolutely blows my mind for obvious reasons.
While King of Comedy is the extreme of the "parasocial relationship" phenomenon introduced by serial television, I'm still guilty of it myself to some extent. In the past, my favorite tv show has become such a ritualistic part of my life that I kind of feel like I know the characters. I can still quote everything Ephram Brown ever said and tell you his whole life story. And then when the show ends it's like a part of your life is gone. It's kind of pathetic, but also really amazing to me. And now we can do the same thing with the actual celebrity. This might be getting closer to better, because it's real people and not fake characters.
But then we get into the one-way parasocial thing, the same complication that plagues our interaction with "friends" with people we actually know on facebook. Does being friends on Facebook or Twitter really count as keeping in touch? Like I can read your updates and everything, but there's no guarantee you're doing the same thing with mine. The answer is clearly no and everyone knows it, and the same goes for celebrities: it only makes us feel like we know them better, when in fact we don't. It brings them closer to us and maybe humanizes them, but it simultaneously feeds our addiction and fuels our celebrity culture, perpetuating that they are deserving of the god-like status we afford them. So like most things nowadays, I guess we'll take the good with the bad!
That was completely irrelevant I just keep thinking about it.
Anyway, so I'
ve been thinking a lot about this whole celebrities-on-social-networking-sites phenomenon. Mostly because Taylor Swift and David Archuleta are on my Twitter feed (is that what it's called?) and I am friends with them on Facebook. I think it is so sweet that celebs are on the sites, and clearly 63,000 others agree with me. This was actually sparked by Taylor's recent facebook status: "Trying to convince Abigail's parents to let her come to New York with me. I know the drill, we've been doing this since we were 14." and I was instantly like, oh Abigail from the song "Fifteen", that's cool that they are still friends. So I'm reading the comments on her status and only ONE other person mentioned that, so I was proud that I knew ALL the words to her songs, and then instantly depress
ed when I remembered I was 22. But I think that's the flipside of stars on Twitter/Facebook, it's humbling. Either someone like me who knows all the words and appreciates people foremost for their natural talent and the skill in songwriting, etc. Or the more stalkerish people who know her favorite kind of french fry and what day she gets her period. Especially when it comes to Taylor Swift, everyone thinks oh I am her biggest fan! and then you go on Facebook and... no, you are definitely NOT her biggest fan. So I'm seeing possibilities:
One, we start seeing a dramatic increase in artists who get big after getting their start from a die-hard online following, like Secondhand Serenade, Ronnie Day, and Savannah Outen [who you can see at OIFF on July 27th!]
Two, fans start getting more stalkerish trying to outdo others and really be the biggest fan.
I'm having flashes of King of Comedy here. [If you haven't seen it, basically Robert DeNiro is a crazed fan of Jerry Langford (a Jay Leno type host/comedian), who fantasizes an entire friendship with him because he knows him so well, and after real Jerry's repeated rejections, he kidnaps Jerry and steals his show for a night.]Also, while doing research for OIFF, I came across this website:
http://www.contactanycelebrity.com
that absolutely blows my mind for obvious reasons.
While King of Comedy is the extreme of the "parasocial relationship" phenomenon introduced by serial television, I'm still guilty of it myself to some extent. In the past, my favorite tv show has become such a ritualistic part of my life that I kind of feel like I know the characters. I can still quote everything Ephram Brown ever said and tell you his whole life story. And then when the show ends it's like a part of your life is gone. It's kind of pathetic, but also really amazing to me. And now we can do the same thing with the actual celebrity. This might be getting closer to better, because it's real people and not fake characters.
But then we get into the one-way parasocial thing, the same complication that plagues our interaction with "friends" with people we actually know on facebook. Does being friends on Facebook or Twitter really count as keeping in touch? Like I can read your updates and everything, but there's no guarantee you're doing the same thing with mine. The answer is clearly no and everyone knows it, and the same goes for celebrities: it only makes us feel like we know them better, when in fact we don't. It brings them closer to us and maybe humanizes them, but it simultaneously feeds our addiction and fuels our celebrity culture, perpetuating that they are deserving of the god-like status we afford them. So like most things nowadays, I guess we'll take the good with the bad! 
