The Coming Expansion Of The Celebrity Culture

“The medium is the message.” Each development in communicative technology, each new medium, has within itself certain inevitable progressions. It inevitably evolves in a certain way according to its nature. So any specific expression within a given medium is not that important, because ultimately it is going to evolve according to its own nature, and THAT is the message, not some particular manifestation. So with the development of television and all of that, which represents the past-present medium, there were certain inevitable results. One of these was the celebrity culture that is so apparent today. With television, ‘characters’ are not left to the imagination, as it was with text. Rather, any given individual or scene represented with video is about THAT person. Inevitably, then, we as a society would develop preferences for certain archetypal characters which would come to be associated with certain faces, or individuals.

The Internet is laying the foundation for a new medium. Let us say this is the present-future medium, as it is somewhat in existence today, but has only just begun its evolution. One aspect of its inevitable evolution is a massive expansion of the celebrity culture. The previous medium, based on television and movies, was essentially monopolized by a few large corporations. Beyond this, the essential point is that there was a limited quantity of material that would actually be produced and viewed by the public at large. This leads to a small, aristocratic celebrity culture that the majority of the population is jealous of, and occupies the minds of the societal masses. With the E-volution, these restrictions do not exist. For a time, the society will have a hard time realizing and taking advantage of the new possibilities, and will use these new possibilities to serve the purposes of, and propogate, the television culture and its ideals; this is where we are now. Inevitably, though, the society realizes that anyone can be a ‘celebrity.’ We do not need to be limited to only a few celebrities which are nationally or internationally recognized. There will be more and more talented people who desire to live what we may call a ‘celebrity lifestyle.’

What to do with this influx of interesting and talented people, potential celebrities, that we are seeing today, and will continue to see more and more of as time goes on? With this expansion of the celebrity culture will come a localization of the celebrity culture. There are something like 300 million citizens in America today. Let us say there are 30 real celebrities in America, though the number could differ depending on how you look at it, but these differences are inconsequential in terms of the point I’m making. This means that there is one celebrity for every 10 million citizens. The overwhelming majority of the fans of these celebrities will never have any interaction, letalone significant interaction, with these people, despite the fact that they would love that. Let us now consider an America that has 30,000 ‘celebrities,’ about 1,000 times more than we have today. This may seem strange, but here each ‘celebrity’ corresponds to 10,000 citizens, which would in general be localized. Now you have a much more manageable celebrity-fan situation, where the ‘celebrities’ have the same type of exposure, if not more, that constitutes a celebrity in our minds, and the corresponding lifestyle and fan adoration, yet with a realistic ability for the fans to interact with the people they are fans of.

As I say, this new societal structure would in general sort itself out according to locality. There will be a development of many well-developed ‘niches,’ based on the great diversity of interests among people. These niches will overlap in certain ways, and will have their own corresponding ‘celebrities.’ Based on various factors of appeal, each ‘celebrity’ will have their own mass of following, in terms of numbers and geographical range, as well as cross-niche appeal. Their primary base will be local, but they could potentially expand to large areas. Now when we think of the celebrity lifestyle, there are a few things to consider. It is partially based on their level of exposure and popularity, which we already addressed would be fulfilled. It is also partially based on the LIFESTYLE of the celebrity, which we will inevitably discover is available to all of us basically. The other thing to consider is that it is not only about BEING a celebrity. Being friends with, or dating, a celebrity is also very exciting. With this expansion of the celebrity culture, and its corresponding localization and intimacy, the prospect of becoming friends with, or dating, a celebrity will become very realistic. What this means is that everyone will essentially be able to live the celebrity lifestyle, whether or not they themselves are one of the actual ‘celebrities.’ Right now the situation is that there are a few people living lifestyles that most of the rest of the citizenry wishes they were living. As this E-volution occurs, the development of the new medium through the Internet, we will all have any sort of lifestyle we would like available to us. As it has been implied in my mind, but a potential objection I can see being raised, all of this does NOT imply the stereotype of getting drunk every night and doing various wreckless thing. This is only one possibility, that in some people’s minds has become a stereotype. The point is that there will be no limits to our lifestyles, and we will be able to take that freedom of choice and do with our lives whatever we wish, with no limits.