It’s 2023 and we are living in the era of post everything. Everything is content. According to some “social media guru’s” on TikTok. But no matter who you believe, one look at any of the highest rated social media apps you’ll see people posting about their every day lives to strangers.
It’s funny, when I was growing up in the 90’s. Or the late 1900’s as Gen-Z likes to refer to the time. A lot of us wanted to be pilots, police officers, firefighters, doctors, lawyers, singers, actors, sports greats, and of course astronauts. But fast forward to the tech centered 2010s and now when asked about what they want to be when they grow up kids say “youtuber” or “influencer.” Sure there are still some kids who want to do what their parents did or what their grand parents did, but a growing majority of kids want to be “stars.”
And once the cold harsh reality of the real-world hits these same kids in the mouth and realization sets in, when that the goal of being in the top 1% of “influencers” is much harder than originally imagined. Was it easier in the aughts of 2000 when there was a smaller pool of “youtubers?” Sure, I only discovered the website in 2005 when a friend said that we could watch full old episodes of “Bobby’s world.” A cartoon by Howie Mandel that I enjoyed in my youth.
Little did I know that you could upload something YOU made to this site. But it wasn’t until 2011 when I really started to watch people live out their lives on the web. This of course was only ignited by the reality TV movement that went ape-shit when the WGA went on strike in ’07. Reality TV showed us that anyone could be a “star.” Even that weird big-headed gentleman whose catch phrase was “you’re fired.”
What I tend to find interesting with a lot of people, and maybe this stems from the 90s. When personal camcorders really became a thing, more or less because they became more accessible to the public when prices started to come down. But people, back then, when you would point a camera in their direction would often “pose” and make sure that you caught their “good side.” We still see the same thing now at sports events when the cameraman pans to someone and now they’re projected on the jumbo-tron.
We were a generation of people who didn’t believe that we would become famous unless we had an actual “talent” so we went on with our lives doing our regular everyday jobs. And we would go home and watch scripted entertainment, but when that scripted stopped due to the strike we found ourselves watching people who didn’t quite have the talent but somehow managed to be on that same screen as those talented actors and actresses.
Reality TV along with the reality competition shows told the public that you didn’t need any discernible talent to be “famous” you just had to be “watchable.” You just had to have something that makes people stay on the channel. By nature we like to root for people who are similar to us. And when we see someone doing something that we also think we can do it flips a switch, and we think “you know what… maybe I can do this.”
Myspace also introduced us to the first type of “internet celebrity” The Tila Tequila’s and Jeffree Starr’s and the likes of Dane Cook. Although Dane would use the site to catapult his comedy career into the stratosphere selling out arenas in the 2000s. But Myspace did something different it gave us a glimpse into people’s lives with photo albums and grainy low-pixel videos. It was a way to share a moment, or a fun night out with friends and relatives who maybe lived across the country or the pond.
The gaps between letters, emails, and phone calls that Myspace would bridge between families and friends would be invaluable. This also, in my belief changed the way we kept in touch. At least for me, I wouldn't feel the need to call or send an e-mail as much if I could like a post, or write a comment. I thought they saw it, they know, I know what’s going on, and they would do the same to my posts.
It wasn’t until we saw people start to post more intimate details of their lives outside of the new car, graduation, new job, engagement, wedding, fun night out, vacation and of course the wildly popular sunset. That made people start to want to know more, but also want to share more.
Facebook enters the chat and is the new hip thing. I don’t remember the day, but I remember when it happened and I tried to delete my Myspace because I felt it wasn’t necessary anymore. All of my friends had made the jump the Facebook so I did too. Although since I didn’t remember my Myspace password I couldn’t delete my page.
Since Facebook had my attention and we we’re starting to see those same people who were Myspace “internet famous” move their fame over to Facebook and Twitter and the early days of instagram. Facebook I believe was that app that made people want to share more, as in what they were currently thinking. They could write a dissertation about anything, and people would like, comment and share.
Instagram in my opinion was made popular from sunset and lunch pictures. Everyone in the early 2010s was posting sunset pics, you couldn’t get away from it. But the one thing that it did was change the way we recieved these things. Facebook was something that you would use on your computer before it also became an app. But Instagram and twitter were on your phone, in your hand all the time. You could in a sense post in real time.
We really as a society saw the benefit of this during Furgeson, the news was saying one thing and residents on the ground were saying another. Social media was able to hold media and people accountable. It’s hard to lie in real time when people are seeing a completely different narrative. Police worn body-cameras wouldn’t have become such a thing and a sticking point if it wasn’t for social media. So among the toxicity of the trends and hate comments there is still some good stuff that can come from social media.
We are living in a time where you can basically visit anywhere in the world via someone’s social media. We can see what life is like in other countries from the people who live there. One of the coolest things Snapchat did was their map where you could go anywhere in the world that had access to the app and wifi and watch someones story. It connects us in ways we’ve never been connected before. We’re able to share information at a rate at which we’ve never seen before. We also have so much more access to information.
I know at some point it’s going to go-off the rails and we’ll see a mass social media exodus. But if we are able to separate the BS we get fed on social media and limit our usage, I think as a society we’ll be ok. That is until its all banned and we’re back in the stone-ages.
