Do You Want To Be "Internet Famous"?

When we look at our current society and how almost everything we do revolves around a computer screen or mobile device, it seems only logical that this would be the platform we would head to when broadcasting. But it still begs the question of how do these people manage to have such a strong fan-base and why do they start it all?

While looking into this it became apparent that I wasn’t the only one who was curious about how and why they do it, and how they become so popular. Benjamin Cook, a close friend of other YouTubers decided to explore this in most relevant way, he created a 12 week online documentary series on YouTube called “Becoming YouTube”. In this he explores the ways of YouTube, creating content, fans, meet ups and how they all come together to create such a powerful platform of loved personalities. One idea that was discussed was the users’ “self-presentations”. This explored how the users could create a version of themselves online which was likeable and in some cases unlike their usual self. Looking further into this concept we are led to Goffman’s “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life”, in this he defines what the concept of self-presentation by saying,

“the techniques deployed by individuals or groups to perform an expression of themselves to others. This expression is usually intended to form a more favourable and amicable impression”.

The main word in this definition is “perform”, stating that these people are not a complete depiction of reality in the honest sense of the wordWith this in mind and looking back at the previous argument that people can relate to these people as they are real life people talking to them, can we definitively say this? Through this media outlet, the user has complete control over what the viewer gets to see. Does this then explain why they are so popular, in theory t would make sense as they can create a flawless persona online without anyone being able to see what they don’t want them to. This not only allows them to be extremely likeable but as they are portraying only their best qualities, parents are being persuaded to encourage their children into looking up to the likes of Zoella. YouTube once again is turning our original idea of normality on its head as parents used to protect their children from the internet in fear of them accessing bad content, but now the internet seems to be a more censored and safe place for our generation all thanks to the users want to be respected and looked up to, in most cases at least.

There are many contributing factors to the growth of YouTube culture; freedom, opportunity, interactivity and accessibility being some of these that have already been discussed. Another factor which is the cause of YouTube occurrence in the first place, plays a huge part in its growths. Technological development is the guiding force in its popularity and in turn its complete take over in pop culture for this generation. With the growth technology there has been an inevitable growth of platforms and accessibility to content; YouTube being of these platforms on a huge scale. So with this growth being inevitable it would seem logical that the movement of our “celebrities” from one space to another would be inevitable also.