Saturday, September 26, 2009

Pseudo-Celeb Status

Why do we love celebrities? Before there was Ben Affleck and Oprah there were important people who did things like royalty... back when royalty meant something. That's what we do now, we treat celebrities like royalty and follow them around thinking they're either brilliant or terrible and try to replace them. Then after following them around for so long having them shown to us as wonderful, people decide to just invade their lives and so we get photos of people at the beach or walking around and doing normal things. Shock exclusive photo of Sigourney Weaver without make up looking less than perfect! Who cares? When did celebrities stop being people and start being objects of fascination to study and stalk as if that was ever OK? Last I checked people generally have to sign forms to have their image released to the general public - unless you're famous and you're having a nervous break down. It's your own fault for doing something interesting... you should stick to an office job if you don't want your personal life to be twisted to fit the flavour of the month.

So why do we care when someone we don't know turns out to not be the perfect idolistic person we'd expect them to be (for no real reason at all)? Well I don't. So I'm going to talk about someone else.

Internet celebrities.

They're the weird interesting people who are ALWAYS normal non-perfect people who seem a lot more down to earth than other celebrities so there's no point in trying to bring them down to our level to laugh at their not-even-very-embarrassing photos. They're people who put themselves out there on some website (*cough* youtube specifically *cough*) and got more attention than anyone else. Who says they have talent? These people appear more human to us which... they ARE. They're just random's just like the people watching them. Why do you still feel so special and important if they reply to something you say or comment on your channel to answer some question you asked? They're pseudo-celebrities. The kind that you feel you can achievably interact with even though you're just a little person.

TheHill88 is an example of an internet celebrity who gained popularity by accident. Oh she was so young back then when she rapped about lazydork and lonelygirl15. (Remember when lonelygirl15 was actually a celebrity? Remember the mini-pseudo-media frenzy she caused when we found out that Bree wasn't real? That's the impact of someone sitting and talking to a camera. Never underestimate it.) She has gone from that random 3 years ago just vlogging, to someone who is in two films in production (according to imdb) and has achieved internet status and even had her own little mention on a news story. She now has over 72 THOUSAND subscribers on youtube. I think that's brilliant and truly an amasing thing. How did that happen? I'm not saying she's a bad entertainer or that she hasn't got talent, in fact I think she's awesome... based soly on the collected minutes of footage she has edited and decided to upload for the viewing pleasure of the masses (so technically I don't know do I? And all assumptions are based on someone's manipulated construction of themselves that they screen and select to show) which is basically anyone with an internet connection. Not only do I think she's great based on her vlogs (which, btw, when did talking to yourself become a popular form of entertainment for other people? Is it... like having half a conversation and only the good conversationists are sucessful vloggers?) but to have put up with the terrible onslaught of abuse and haters that EVERYONE no matter how GREAT they are will recieve on youtube. There are always people who are shallow and tools who are excessively cruel just because they can be. She has survived the abuse and not run away completely which is quite an admirable trait. Sure she had that gap of half a year but she's back.

OK see what I'm doing? I'm talking about her life, what she does, what I think of her and what I assume she's like. I don't know this person. It's like commenting on a celebrity. It's just plain weird. I would like to know this person and I don't want to treat her like some random celebrity that I would be thrilled to meet one day in a "OMG! OMG! OMG!" sense because to me they really should be that girl from Australia who got popular. But then... why would I care at all if she's not a real celebrity so I'm not idolising her and don't know her?

That's what internet celebrityness does. It makes you think of people as half everyday people and half celebrity so when you think about approaching this person or talking about them it gets weird. Now I'm wondering, I follow this person on Twitter, I'm a fan on facebook, watch and comment on their blog and youtube channel, read their wikipedia page. How far does it have to go before it becomes stalking? Not just for Caitlin but for EVERYONE. Having celebrity status kinda removes someone from the same "level" so to speak (in people's minds, not in reality, celebs aren't above us) so you think it's OK to read about their lives in the magazines and follow them around but then that's creepy isn't it? But it's... normal. But Caitlin isn't that hollywood million dollar cheque a movie star with her own walk of fame star and such so does this make it right? (I question the morality of Twitter and myspace regardless of what social status a person holds so yeah... but she's just a really good example)

My video I was loading of hers screwed up. I'm on dial-up because I exceded my download limits so I can't load it again because I'm going to bed after this. Dang, and I was hoping to be nostalgic and watch one of her old humorous videos to take me back to the good old days of youtube.

I've lost track of so much youtube stuff... coincedentaly I kinda stopped being obsessed with it when she stopped uploading then got more into it when she came back... coincedentaly. I was trying to go on more and give my channel more attention BEFORE "The Plan" was uploaded so no I'm not stalkerish on that point.

You know if she was reading this right now what would she think? How... weird would it be to read a blog post about yourself by a person you don't know? Is that what it's like to be a celebrity... always having people talk about you when they don't know you, haven't met you but still insist on having opinions of you and talking about you. That's why I've decided that I won't be mean to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton in the future because they're really just people who got our attention and are known OF by all of us (but NOT known BY all of us) because the media can manipulate you so easily to thinking whatever you want. Lindsay Lohan recently laughed when she heard she was in a psychiatric ward of some hospital. It was news to her, she was busy not having a nervous breakdown in some jacket. You honestly believe everything? How sad. So yeah, Britney Spears doesn't need to read another thing online about how fat you think she is or how bad you think her new record is, it's all subjective and a matter of opinion (which, btw, is grossly misinformed unless you know the person personally).

So I'm just this random uninformed person... admiring this random semi-famous person for something they do occasionaly for fun... blogging about how weird the interaction is between the two kinds of people we are. Will I ever meet and get to know this person? Probably not.

Hello to all famous and semi-famous people out there. Have a nice day.

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