Great insight, particularly regarding the self-interest POV.
I include most internet celebrities in this rant, but not all. There are obviously some exceptions, but the majority of internet celebrities are guilty of the following sins.
I hate internet celebrities because they cannot imagine a world without their Macbooks and their wi-fi. They natter away incessantly in their insulated little worlds where everyone drinks soy lattes and fires off tweets from their iPhones when not doing interviews with that pest Robert Scoble on his Nokia N95.
Beyond Bittorent throttling and spectrum auctions, internet celebrities have little sense of political obligation or social justice. They are predominantly white and middle class, and so of course they fail to recognize their own privileged socioeconomic status. But don’t tell our internet celebs any of this, because if over 5,000 people are following them on Twitter, then all must be well in the cosmos.
Internet celebrities are the incessant cheerleaders for an overhyped digital revolution. Their lives are based around an endless series of shameless attempts at self-promotion. If they are not competing to see who can amass the most followers on Twitter or Facebook, then they are scheming to get their name on the frontpage of Valleywag. It is all very juvenile, if not predictable.
There are obviously a lot of cool people doing a lot of cool things online. At the same time though, there are a lot of people who are famous for reasons that are absolutely beyond me. I have no problem giving credit where credit is due, but as far as I’m concerned, it being given out far too easily and to far too many of the wrong people.
Reblogged from SeanBest.
April 13, 2008, 11:21pm
