Yip Sum Yu, SID: 10617021, Blog post 2

Student name: Yip Sum Yu

SID: 10617021

Blog post 2 (377 words)

Marwick, A. & boyd, d. (2011). To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 17(2), 139–158.

Social media is the most trending tool for people to connect with others on the internet, between friends to friends and fans to celebrities, by creating and sharing contents. There are many social media platforms nowadays like Facebook and Twitter that we are so familiar with already. We use them daily, and practice as a fan to some of the celebrities, simply by replying or sharing their status and updates, but not awaring of that we somehow became a contributor to their social statuses on social media and their own fame.

Marwick, in the journal, examines the use of Twitter by famous people to conceptualise celebrity as a practice. Celebrity is practiced through the appearance and performance of ‘backstage’ access on Twitter. Celebrities can talk about their personal feelings and thoughts to create a sense of intimacy between fans. They also use particular language and cultural references, for example, Lady Gaga calls her fans as little monsters. In this kind of way, followers may feel like they are closer to the celebrities they are following,  and it creates affiliations to them and keeps their practices on this relationship.

What makes Twitter different from other social media then? Why is it one of the most working fan base for celebrities? Twitter is an online news and social networking service where users post and read messages restricted to 140-characters, which are called ‘tweets’. Most of the time the ‘tweets’ are immediate. It is about now, at this moment. Celebrities, no matter the accounts are authoring by the ‘real person’ of the account or the backing team, the ‘tweets’ still about what is happening right now. They can reveal their current feelings at that moment and fans can notice and reply immediately. The interaction between the followers and the following account is quick and simple which makes the relationship between celebrity and fans even ‘closer’, at least it appears to be so.

Indeed, in order to successfully practice celebrity, fans must recognise the power differentials intrinsic to the relationship, and the authenticity must be promised. At the most basic level, fans want to ensure that the person tweeting is sincerely who they claim to be. With the characteristics of Twitter, it presents the celebrity in a more realistic and practical way.