We're not quite in agreement. Tweeting and updating your facebook page is not an attempt to "become a celebrity". That's where I'm disagreeing with you. Such behavior is no more an attempt to become a celebrity than, say, telling a joke to 5 friends in a pub or, say, giving a toast at a wedding ... or organizing a local seminar on emergence.
True, for _some_ people, people we might diagnose as narcissists, EVERY opportunity to take the stage might be a form of trying to "become a celebrity". But normal people don't do that. And Facebook consists primarily of _normal_ people. Now, there are corporate facebook pages and corporate twitter feeds (including people who've become "institutions" like John Cleese or Guy Kawasaki) and those people use these media as public relations outlets or even to deliver their product. But even in those cases, they're not using the media to become celebrities or exploit a weakness. For the most part, they're merely doing what their fans/customers ask of them. As to the behavior of some celebrities and why they do what they do, there can be an infinite number of reasons. And I caution you against over simplifying those reasons in the same way I caution you against oversimplifying trust relationships. For example, we have a local bread maker named Dave. Dave was a criminal. Then he learned to make bread and that others liked his bread. Now he uses his celebrity status in an attempt to demonstrate that criminals can redirect their energy into productive behavior that benefits those around them. Is Dave a narcissist? Is he exploiting his fans? I don't know. And, frankly, I don't care. The fact is that such behavior is much more complex than you portray. Quoting Nicholas Thompson circa 09-11-25 09:28 AM: > We have only to explain the behavior of the celebrity her- or himself: why > anybody might be tempted to try to put ourselves in the celebrity position? > Here, multilevel selection comes into play. While the routine function of > fan clubs might be to make groups out of strangers, for the celebrity > herself, it becomes an chance to exploit that weakness in human nature for > her own individual gain. Any one of us who sees a chance at that > opportunity would be a fool not to try and exploit it. Hence facebook and > "friends". -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
