Guess Who (you should follow)
This is going to piss someone off, but we’re going to say it anyway. Why would anyone compete to be Paris Hilton’s BFF? It’s not just that the wind blows through one ear and out the other, or the fact that contestants on the “reality” show are willing to totally debase themselves for the chance to appear to be her friend. It’s primarily because Paris is famous because she is famous. Her fame is totally built on nothing but her fame.
Being famous for practically nothing isn’t new. Throughout the history of TV game shows, there have been personalities on game shows who are famous for being personalities on game shows. Brett Sommers is famous for being a panelist on the Match Game. (Okay, she did some acting, too, but no one remembers any of it, so it doesn’t count.) Who heard of Jaye P. Morgan outside of the Gong Show?
Moving forward to the current plethora of crap tv shows, losers on one reality show become a star in the next. (“New York” in Flavor of Love/I Love New York, Trista Rehn in The Bachelor/The Bachelorette, all the losers from Rock of Love ending up as stars on Charm School.) It’s not that any of them have talent, or do anything noteworthy, they’re just famous for being caught on camera.
Back to Paris Hilton. She is a pro at one thing: Promoting Paris. Getting to all the right places so she can be seen by all the right people. She’s on MySpace, has her own website, and doles out tidbits to her fans on her two twitter accounts. ( @babygirlparis and @HiltonsNewBFF – and no, we’re not following either.) She gets press everywhere she turns, because whe makes sure it happens.
There are ways to get famous, or at least noticed, on twitter. One of them is #followfriday, a tradition of recommending good quality tweeps to your friends. Get recommended enough, you get to the top of the #followfriday list, and more people seek you out.
@AmericanWomannn has taken a page from Paris’ book, and found her way to the upper levels of #followfriday today by promoting herself. She’s recommended herself in #followfriday posts, and RT her #followfriday recommendations by others so that each one gets maximum mileage. In some sort of giant love fest, she recommends hundreds of people, including herself, for the greatest part of the day, and they respond in kind.
On her account, and scores of others just like it, giving a #followfriday reco means nothing, other than a way to get a #followfriday recommendation. When the currency of a recommendation is reduced to the value of a reciprocal link, getting to the top of the list means nothing, other than that you are at the top of a list.
In this case, when @topfollowfriday asks the question: Who is endorsing you? The answer is: @AmericanWomannn.
 |
Send in the Fail Bird! |
Speak your mind
All Comments are Moderated to keep out porn, spammers, and other people who don't play nice. They may be edited by us if they ramble on forever because if you're that long-winded, we recommend you start your own blog. Posts with a bunch of urls in them, or contain obvious advertising, will be edited or deleted, depending on how generous we feel at the time. If you're a wacko, we'll probably publish your comment just so we can make fun of you. If you say something nice, God will give you a puppy. No guarantees, but if we were God, we'd do it.
RSS Feed by Feedburner