Fame! I Want to Live Forever…
Posted by anastasia on 01-12-2007
Lakshmi Chaudhry wrote a fascinating piece in The Nation about how social media (social networks, blogs, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc.) has quickly evolved into a toolset for "Generation Me" to become famous. The critique is that with this generation being so caught up in self promotion and validation, young people have developed an aversion to collective action.
Yet this type of individualism has always been a part of the collective unconscious — it's the American dream with the added icing of celebrity on top. Instead of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, working incredibly hard, and then maybe becoming successful, all with whatever traditional forms of self promotion that existed, technology has made this process much faster, easier and accessible to more people. And yes, you can become temporarily "famous" for doing something silly, dangerous or showing some skin online. Chaudhry calls this landscape the new Los Angeles. Maybe, but it definitely requires a lot less risk and commitment than moving to L.A., going on audition after audition and ending up in a commercial or B movie if you're lucky.
Before we all get down on Generation Me for being so narcissistic and for wanting this type of celebrity, I think it's interesting to think about what young people are really saying when they say they want to be famous:
- They want to be validated and to receive constant attention and feedback (vs. feeling isolated and ignored)
- They want to be discovered (not have to stress so hard about getting into good schools, what they will do for a career)
- They want to be rich (not have to worry about money, be taken care of, possibly have money to take care of their own parents who may be struggling…and yes, to have lots of stuff)
- They want to perform and entertain people (we all like to grab the karaoke mic once in a while, sing in the shower or fantasize about being Danny or Sandy in the Broadway production of "Grease." The fact that reality TV is creating "American Idols" like Fantasia and Carrie Underwood who came from nothing, fuels this desire even more.)
- They want to have fun (The hedonistic lifestyle that is sold to them through pop culture from "Entourage" to MTV looks like fun, does it not?)
Celebrity is about fantasy, escapism and ego. As Chaudhry notes in her piece, "this growing self-involvement is a luxury afforded to a generation that has not experienced a wide-scale war or economic depression. If and when the good times come to an end, so may our obsession with fame." Maybe a new Ice Age will cure this generation's obsession with fame, but I have to think that there is some other way to help young people meet these very human needs while also raising awareness of the world they live in and teaching them about the power of collective action. Maybe we need a new PSA campaign that highlights the downside of celebrity (kind of like mini-episodes of VH1's "Behind the Music") — its fleeting nature, not knowing who to trust, being picked apart by tabloids and gossip blogs, self obsession, etc.
What are your prescription for Generation Me's "fame problem"?
January 12th, 2007 at 11:53 am
I'm not convinced that Generation Y (or another generation) has a fame problem.
While the author of that article notes, "A 2000 Interprise poll revealed that 50 percent of kids under 12 believe that becoming famous is part of the American Dream" there is no comparison to previous decades.
If the pollsters asked a bunch of ten year olds, "Is becoming famous part of the American Dream?" the results may have been 50-50 because the kids don't under the term "American Dream," which is a vague concept even for adults.
Even if there is a trend of more people expecting to become famous, so what? If they don't become famous, it will generally be one of many disappointments over a lifetime.
January 14th, 2007 at 8:10 am
hey Anastasia, very interesting catch. A small remark about the critics that Generation Me is too caught up with shameless self promotion, that they are aversive to collective action.
We had a very succesfull campaign a few weeks ago in Belgium called "Music for Life". Three Studio Brussels DJs locked themselves up in a glass house and aired for 7 days, 24 hours a day while going on hunger strike. The mission to the Flemish youth - Flanders is the Dutch speaking part of Belgium - was to request songs in exchange for donations. The result was amazing. The whole country seemed to be mobilized. It was the perfect combination of self expression (in exchange for 2 minutes of faim on the radio) and collective action that lead to success.
The critic on this generation is incorrect: collective action and shameless self promotion can embrace one another.
January 14th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Hi Tom. Thanks for commenting. I definitely think examples like that abound whether it's Rock for Darfur (with bands getting involved to help Sudan but also help themselves) or the three young filmmakers who inspired a movement called Invisible Children. In some ways it's famous people or people who have celebrity qualities that are inspiring a lot of the collective social action happening with youth — whether they are attached to the cause in an indirect way, or are spokespeople, etc. See my post about Do Something.
A lot of "old school" activists don't quite get that today's campaigns often have to be as slick and polished as MTV to interest young people and inspire involvement - as well as integrate technology as in the example you cited above. So they read that as aversion to collective action, which as you said, is incorrect.