Old mystique continued to attach to fame long after its basis had changed

Evidence

This new era of fame was shaped by what sociologist Pierre Bourdieu called hysteresis—the lagging effect of old values in a new paradigm. Social media renown required little more than moxie or notoriety, yet audiences still responded to broadcasting as if it carried the same mystique as in previous eras. The logic of ultrapoptimism ultimately blessed notoriety as a pathway to success. Who could question someone else’s status when their fame was backed by quantifiable—and therefore objective—metrics? — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 557

Categorization

Category: Definitional Content

• DEFINE: Defines Bourdieu’s hysteresis and applies it specifically to the mechanics of internet fame.
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that quantified metrics retroactively legitimize any fame—‘who could question someone else’s status when their fame was backed by quantifiable metrics’—is a genuinely dense inversion of how we think status should work.

Related

• Audiences project older celebrity mystique onto fame earned by mere notoriety. (similarity 0.92)
• Quantifiable engagement data made fame an accessible aspiration for millions. (similarity 0.79)
• Fame moved from costly status signal to media-bestowed aura to discounted ordinariness (similarity 0.79)