We’ve all had that “moment.” You know what I’m talking about; where a more “famous” person on the internet drops you a retweet or re-blogs some of your content or makes note of your existence. A sudden rush of awesomesauce rolls through your mind and pink butterflies start appearing on your desktop and ideas of internet-stardom creep into your soul.
Or maybe that was just me.
Keeping it all in perspective is a struggle we all must deal with; it’s far too easy to become famous on the internet and the “value” of it is just as close to zero as it is in the real world. And yes, there’s little we can do at times.
But, the significant difference between us, as followers of Christ, and the rest of the world is what we do with our platform; creating amazing value for other people and making the world a better place should be at the top of the line.
How have you reacted or responded to internet fame?
@JustinWise says
For realz. This is a good word. I felt something similar yesterday when Fake Steve Jobs mentioned Deviant in a post.
He even mentioned my sweater vests. How kind.
Good reminder, bro.
John Dyer says
Dude, you *are* my "famous person on the interweb"!
Adam_S says
I was going to say the same thing ๐
Kyle Reed says
i do this myself.
I am always reminded of this when I "go out in public" and people ask what I have been doing or what I am up to and I will start talking about blogs and conversations and they will say "who is John Saddington?" or "Who is Carlos Whittaker" (sorry John, I am working on making your name global, I just need some more time). It puts things in perspective of moving conversations from an online world to face-to-face. But yes, it is very easy to get caught up in feeling famous for a day.
I remember a big blogger mentioning me in a post and linked to my site. For a day I was king and then the next day I was a peasant. It was a sobering reminder.
Owen Greaves says
What's really important, its not fame, no matter what your status, I will always ask one question.
How Many People Are Better Off Because You Lived?
You will be judged in the end and the love you get will be based on the love you give.
Jesus lives in this place.
srivera says
We should go after Impact!!
This post made me laugh!!
Thx!
jasonthebaldguy says
what internet fame?!! ๐
Aaron says
The Dave Ramsey show re-tweeted something I had said during their broadcast and I quickly got RT'd over and over and over and I forgot about it the next day. ๐
seanrreid says
I responded by following you and Dewde around WordCamp like a lost puppy. I felt like I was part of an entourage. =)
@BillWhitt says
I won a contest on Carlos Whittaker's blog once. I've never had as many unique visitors as I did on that day!
Tom says
Internet fame is a weird beast. In some cases, in leaves just as fast as it comes. Case in point, I had a small, open-source software project that slowly gained traction over a year or so. It actually ended up featured on a couple of sites (Web Resources Depot, ironically enough). Huge influx of traffic and email for a few days.
Couple of weeks later, there were crickets.
The way I see it, no one would know @human3rror if it wasn't for the frequency of blog posts, release of WP themes, or coffee tweets each morning.
And no one would know @dewde if it wasn't for how many time he's been photoshopped (I kid!).
Real Internet fame can come in a variety of ways, but I think that it takes constant quality contribution to the community that you're committed to.
Man, that's a lot of C's.