The Social Celebrity

The majority of the world has been infatuated with celebrity. However, our idea of what a constitutes a celebrity has--up until the advent of social media--been enforced through Hollywood and mass media broadcast. With the growing popularity of social media, celebrities no longer have to come from Blockbuster films or popular television shows. One case where an average person used social networking as a way to shoot themselves into stardom is Tila Tequila 

With the use of Myspace.com, Tila managed to obtain over 3 million friends with the help of her looks and mediocre singing ability. With fame on the internet she managed to score a deal with VH1 to be signed on for her very on dating show A Shot of Love. 

Not only is the internet used as a form of creating celebrities, it has also provided celebrities with a way to brand themselves. It is no longer good enough to be famous for the sake of being famous, now especially with Reality stars and socialites, social media is being used as a way to market one's self. Furthermore, social media has now become the primary way for young celebrities to do damage control on their reputations. With the use of Twitter celebrities can project an image that they want the world to see. Rather than watching E! or Entertainment Tonight, now the public can friend celebrities and go straight to the source. 

With social media, now everyone has their shot of 15 minutes of fame, and if they can use social media correctly they can market themselves extending their 15 minutes indefinitely.