Micro-celebrity transforms personalities without offering the protective infrastructure of mainstream fame

Evidence

Several informants described the changes that micro-celebrity brought about in people. An ex-girlfriend of an internet entrepreneur spoke wonderingly of his newfound predilection for expensive clothes and trendy restaurants, saying that she could no longer recognize in him the person she dated. Melissa Gira Grant described such men as “bubble hotties”: entrepreneurs who had gotten rich without developing the necessary social skills to handle it. Indeed, the attention and admiration that many micro-celebrities receive can be both validating and transformative. In Fame: The Psychology of Stardom, Andrew Evans and Glenn Wilson describe the difficulties of adjusting to newfound fame and how frequent positive feedback can lead to self-absorption, narcissism, and grandiosity, as well as a resentment of public scrutiny. While micro-celebrity exists on a much smaller scale than, say, film stardom, it is possible that the increased attention has similar effects. But mainstream celebrities have access to systems of attention brokerage, such as bodyguards, drivers, PR specialists, agents, and managers, while micro-celebrities rarely do. The nearly constant negative attention given to many micro-celebrities, particularly the critiques of appearance and sexuality targeted at women, requires a very thick skin. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 408

Categorization

• XREF: Joins the attention economy literature and celebrity studies; the ‘bubble hotties’ observation echoes tech-boom critiques of sudden wealth without social cultivation. — connects to: Micro-celebrities face scrutiny if they seek attention without commensurate achievement — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 269; Micro-celebrity success brings psychic damage that can outweigh its rewards — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 319; Achieved micro-celebrity is a deliberate self-presentation strategy, not a social position — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 277 (+11 more)
• DEFINE: Introduces ‘bubble hotties’ as a micro-celebrity subcultural term.