by Zvi Baranoff
Once, not so long ago, pop culture celebrity Andy Warhol proposed that in the future everyone would obtain 15 minutes of fame. Since this off the cuff pithy utterance we have seen the creation of the internet, the rise of social media and the proliferation of mobile devices and now everyone seems to be a mythological figure, at least in their own minds.
Fame, however, has both its costs and limits. To retain fame one must keep in the public eye. Otherwise one quickly becomes old news which is not news at all. Being famous however does not equate to power or significant influence. It is simply notoriety. Influence is a horse of a different colour.
Social media it seems has the perverse effect of providing all of us with the illusion of connectivity and notoriety without much influence whatsoever. We need an occasional reminder that Facebook “likes” or YouTube “views” hold very little weight in the physical world. By “very little“ in this context I mean virtually none. Well, maybe not none but certainly of highly questionable quantity and quality.
I have been examining my own “Internet Fame” as my Facebook page Bookworms [ https://www.facebook.com/HabitatBookworms/ ] approaches the arbitrary milestone of 4000 “likes”. What does it all mean? By examining my personal Facebook account I can make some guesses about what these numbers may mean. Supposedly I have around 300 “friends” on Facebook, some of which I actually know. A bunch of these I have not heard from or seen posts from in a long time.
Some have simply stopped using Facebook for one reason or another but have not deactivated their accounts. A few I know have passed away. Some others may have passed on as well, but I have not heard as such.
I can assume that at least some of the nearly 4000 “likes” on the Bookworms page are from folks similarly inactive either in the cyberspace or the physical universe.
Facebook provides me with what is labeled “insights” from which I can draw some interesting observations but I think very few conclusions. For instance, I learn that 76% of those that “like” my page are women and 23% are men. I assume that 1% fall outside of those categories. Around half are under the age of 35.
Around 1.4 thousand live in the USA. 470 are in the Philippines, 464 are in India, 224 are in the UK, 106 in Canada, 96 are in Pakistan, 74 in Egypt, 70 in Australia, 58 in South Africa and 40 are in Morocco. Those are all the numbers provided so we can assume that there are around one thousand others spread throughout the rest of the world. How 4000 people from around the world have come to mash on the thumbs up icon on my Facebook page, I am quite unsure.
I began the page when I was employed by Alachua Habitat for Humanity in Gainesville, Florida USA. I was managing a book department in the thrift store and began the page as a way to promote the book department and address both cultural and housing issues. I called the page Habitat Bookworms.
Amongst the things I learned from that time period was that the adage about no good deed going unpunished might very well be true. While running the book department gave me a temporary opportunity to network, the corporate top down “charity” proved itself to be uninterested in actually grappling with housing issues or allowing for social activism to grow through self organization.
As they prepared to eliminate my job and fire me the new store manager asked me to give her control over the Facebook page. I changed the name of the page to Bookworms, dropping “Habitat” from the page name right before they dropped me.
That has been several years and it has been that long as well since I have lived in Gainesville, Florida. Still, Gainesville remains the city with the most Bookworms with 50 according to Facebook statistics. Cairo, Egypt and Kolkata, India each have almost as many.
I have found myself watching as the number of “likes” approaches the 4000 mark. I know that the number is totally arbitrary and yet, I have been experiencing excitement and anxiety as I head toward that meaningless threshold.
What does the Bookworms audience gain from all this? I do not know. They must like it to some degree or they would not have clicked on the thumbs up icon. Some of the stuff I post must get read. Some are reposted. Some get “liked” and even hearts (!) implying, I suppose, love or something like that.
I get a notification every time someone does click on my page and that does give me a minor dopamine rush or something akin to that. Because this stimuli comes from all around the world, often it happens in the middle of the night!
For some reason, the most meaningless posts get the most reaction. Perhaps some meaning seeps through nonetheless. Perhaps there is a ripple effect. Perhaps the beating of a butterfly's wings can result in a wave and a storm. Perhaps I am mythological in my own mind.
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| Art by David Kracov |