The Fame Paradox

Written by Jack Silver

Art By Sienna Leone

You’re the next best thing. The biggest and brightest. The world leers its ugly, piercing eyes towards you and for a moment, however brief, the stage is yours. You may land the trick, or fall flat on your face, or perhaps stand frozen in the headlights—but, no matter what happens, your moment will pass. Then the world is onto its next unfortunate fad. And you are the old forgotten thing. And no one is anyone.

Social media was the promise of a new frontier for creatives. A wild, wild west where you could wake up as the sheriff in a town somehow big enough for everyone. There is no question that social media has drastically increased the average person's chances of widespread popularity, but what is yet to be seen is if this lottery system is as beneficial as it appears on the surface. After all, fame has never been easy to handle, and with trends becoming more and more disposable, it’s only grown harder to turn a fleeting spotlight into a sustainable career.

Pop culture as we know it has changed dramatically with the rise of technology. Celebrities like Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando, and Marilyn Monroe were able to amass millions of fans who worshipped them like deities. Hate or love them—everyone knew them. Now, this paradigm certainly came with drawbacks: harassment, invasions of privacy, and violence, to name a few. Yet none of these downsides have disappeared in the modern landscape. In fact, social media has only given more people a platform to attack anyone who dares to venture into the spotlight. The artist today lacks many of the guarantees that once came with fame, and still deals with the consequences.

Online, every aspect of your life is dissected: your body, your family, your relationships, your past, and your future. While this level of scrutiny is almost impossible to avoid with stardom, the vicious, anonymous nature of social media has undoubtedly magnified this behavior.

In the modern age, fame is far more fractured than ever before. An influencer can experience their whole career within a single day. Celebrities on social media are, more often than not, people who arrive at the right moment doing the right trend. But when they reach their millions of potential adoring fans, they are either not prepared for the harsh realities of fame, or they lack the talent and good fortune required to last beyond that initial wave of attention.

So where does that leave you? You can go for the lottery and, if it goes your way, you can blow your winnings in a week's time. Or you can go a different route—one that avoids the cesspool of trends and artificial connections. You don’t have to abandon social media entirely, but you can instead promote yourself from the ground up. Build a fanbase slowly. It may seem impossible to devote so much time to this when there are far quicker possibilities (especially when art, music, writing, and countless other disciplines have become increasingly difficult to pursue without considerable resources and financial freedom), yet it is truly the best path to take. Look beyond the algorithm, stay authentic, and stay focused. To grow a fanbase is to trust in yourself rather than your image. An image is fleeting, and always disappointing when the world discovers the human behind it.