The 20th Anniversary of my 1998 essay THE MANUFACTURING OF CELEBRITY IN THE DIGITAL ERA is now available for purchase on Amazon.com (in both ebook and paperback formats), check it out here:
>> THE MANUFACTURING OF CELEBRITY IN THE DIGITAL ERA (20th Anniversary Edition) on Amazon.com
(NOTE: THE KINDLE EBOOK VERSION WILL BE FREE FROM FRI FEB 8 THROUGH SUN FEB 10. And if you buy the paperback version you will of course receive the Kindle ebook version absolutely free as well, available for immediate download.)
I will also be doing an AMA on Reddit on Fri Feb 8, check the IAMA sub for more:
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From the Amazon description:
In 1998 Erik Vidal predicted that, in the not-too-distant future, people would be famous, not for “doing” anything per se, but simply for being themselves on camera.
In what was then a pre-reality TV world, everyone said he was crazy (for surely one had to “do” something in order to become famous, didn’t they?). And yet here we are, now, mired in a culture obsessed with social media influencers, living in that very same sci-fi reality Vidal wrote about all those years ago.
Starting with the Gibsonian notion of cyberspace (a theoretical space for holding information), as well as its precursor Karl Popper’s World 3, this essay covers the philosophical underpinnings of celebrity, how it works and operates, as well as how it is “discovered” and, in many cases, actively built upon and maintained.
The entire history and evolution of celebrity is then explored: from kings and queens of old (celebrity by birthright) to the heroes of the 20th century (celebrity from accomplishment) to our modern day camgirls and influencers (celebrity attained simply from having a camera pointed at oneself all the time). And then the question: where do we go from here? What does the future of celebrity hold?
CONTENTS include:
-- The Origins and Nature of Cyberspace
-- The Origins and Nature of Celebrity
-- The Evolution of Celebrity: From the Doers to the Performers
-- Celebrity in the Digital Era
-- Jennifer Ringley: the First Internet Celebrity
-- The Nature of Social Interaction on the Internet
-- "The Secret of Jenni's Success": the Nature of Celebrity as Defined by its Medium
-- The Future of Celebrity in Cyberspace and the Birth and Evolution of the Meta-Individual
(This essay contains approximately 14,000 words, equivalent to a 45-55 minute read time.)
