Modern technology has most definitely made social networking one of the most successful ways of fans accessing celebrities and their lives. There are countless ways that celebrities get their name out via social networking, with Twitter and Facebook being the prime two. Since it is easy to make fan pages have a large capacity of "friends" liking the page, or an unlimited amount of followers on Twitter, these sites are fans' dream as they are able to virtually get updates on the lives of celebrities without seeing them in person.
With sites like this, celebrities no doubt know that they are followed by their millions of everyday people interested in the "celebrity life". Knowing that this is the case, some celebrites welcome this kind of attention with open arms while others can become quite annoyed with the fact that almost every move on the internet will be seen by fans. That is when several pages are made by celebrity "wannabes" who make a Facebook page or Twitter account posing as a specific famous personality.
This whole social networking idea pertaining to celebrities all ties back to the fact that people can be whoever they want via the internet. The new age of technology has brought about several advantages, but also disadvantages in the fact that an entirely different life can be lead through a website- or maybe even many websites at once. Not only could we be following celebrities, but we may also be following some bored middle-aged man posing as a young and gorgeous female celebrity.
With the fact that celebrities have a strong presence in social networking, along with the celebrity impersonators, we must be mindful of how we let their statuses and tweets impact our daily life. Whether it is the celebrity or another everyday person, his/her status shouldn't give that personality any more credibility.
Twitter, for sure, allows the easiest access to celebrities than any other website. You can read anything they post by just clicking that follow button. It's pretty cool to access someone you look up to so easily. You do give some good points that credibility of these celebrities can be in question, too. You just never know who is on the other side of the computer.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the point you made about Twitter, which definitely works as a celebrity stalking tool. Like you said, it's never been easier to know what celebrities are up to, and it's become increasingly harder for them to get away from the public eye. I never really thought about people impersonating celebrities, but now that you mention it, it seems logical that someone out there would want to live in the shoes of a famous person. However, the few times I've visited twitter they seem to have added a small check-mark to profiles of actual celebrities, with a "verified" logo, which at least makes it seem like they recognize the problem and are trying to fix it.
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