Social media has not increased the importance of attention, but has given individuals ownership and flexibility with how they use it.
In the past, celebrities had to rely on mainstream media as a middle man. They could still capitalize on their fame, but only in ways that were approved by the middle man.
Social media has changed the dynamic by giving celebrities direct communication with their fans.
If you think of the fan attention as a resource, social media has cut out a middle man and made it a whole lot cheaper to mine the resource.
This changes the nature of celebrity in two ways.
First, it makes celebrity and the ability to garner attention even more valuable. The most popular celebrities make more money doing what they do best, than ever before. Whether that is Floyd and Conor in boxing, The Rock in the box office, or Drake with music to most popular stars make more in their field than ever before.
Secondly, it makes celebrity more transferable than ever before. If you have millions of followers on social media, you can use that to get a leg up in all sorts of areas. Musicians can start whiskey brands, their own clothing lines, restaurants, cooking shows, athletes can start podcasts, porn stars can start sports talk shows. Notoriety has never been more flexible.
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