Back to basics: The difference between traditional celebrities and internet celebrities
How to distinguish between the two
Traditional vs internet celebrities
I am sure that you recognise these three people. They are traditional celebrities, well-known because of their status, talents and achievements. Barack Obama through his former position as president of the US, Rihanna through her singing career and Alan Sugar through his success as a businessman.
So what are internet celebrities?
Crystal Abidin in her book Internet Celebrity: Understanding fame online, defines them as people, icons and figures who have experienced a large amount of attention through their popularity native to and on the internet. This means that their fame is not required to link to a position, talent or achievement.
Some examples you may know include Logan Paul, Loren Gray and Colleen Ballinger, more famously known as Miranda Sings.
In this day and age, it can be difficult to differentiate between traditional celebrities and internet celebrities. This is because internet celebrities initially rise to fame as a result of their online popularity but can later get recognised for their other talents, advancing them into more traditional celebrity careers.
We can look at this by taking the above example of Loren Gray. Loren became an internet celebrity through lip-syncing songs on the social media platform Musical.ly, now TikTok. Since then, she has made use of her status to reveal her actual singing ability and this has led her to a real music career with an already established fan base.
Unwilling memes
Daniel Boorstin famously defined the term celebrity as:
“A person who is known for his well-knownness”
This suggests that the amount of public attention an individual receives determines whether they are considered famous. For internet celebrities, this is easily quantifiable through the number of likes and followers an individual has on social media. However, not all individuals that get this fame actually want it, as with the case of Patrick Richie, the male in the uncomfortable nightclub meme below.
This image went viral in 2018 and became an image macro where internet users could modify the text on top of the image. This resulted in the image circulating with harassment slogans, despite the picture being of two friends. Due to these negative attachments, Patrick told the BBC that he hoped not to become known by this meme but that is what ended up happening. This is what Abidin identifies as an unwilling meme.
The issue is that once you are a meme, it can be difficult to disconnect from this association.
To sum up…
- Individuals are increasingly rising to fame from their popularity on the internet and often progress into more traditional fame.
- Fame can be a consequence of a planned effort to become noticed or by unintentional virality.
- Fame is not always desired and this can create problems.
Through my next series of blogs, I will discuss the rise of internet celebrities in more detail.
