We’ve all heard the term “social media guru”, and when I hear it I immediately think of some of my favorite Youtubers, Viners, or Twitter accounts. But how do these people get so famous so quickly? And why am I so ready to follow them and obsessively watch everything they post?

On almost all social media, such as Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Vine, Youtube, Snapchat, and maybe even Facebook for the older crowd, these “gurus” crop up seemingly out of nowhere and accumulate millions of followers and tons of money. In this technological age, it seems easy to become famous overnight, but what I’ve never understood is who decides that they are famous, and how they even get discovered?

Just to be clear, I am in no way trying to dismiss these extremely successful people, I am just bewildered by the fact that the Youtuber “Pewdiepie” has more subscribers on Youtube than Canada’s population (he has 39 million subscribers, while there are about 35 million people in Canada).

Now, I can understand Pewdiepie having accumulated many followers because he started his Youtube channel back in 2010, giving him an advantage over some of the newer on-the-rise stars. His videos are funny, relatable, and genuinely entertaining, at least to me. Yeah, some haters gonna hate, but when you have that many supporters, he is obviously doing something right.

But others, such as “Alex from Target”, rise up literally overnight and become an instant phenomenon, taking over the internet. Alex’s picture was taken of him secretly by someone who was buying some stuff from Target, and since he was attractive, of course he blew up all over social media. He even ended up on Ellen, went on a tour, been given offers by television and moviemakers, and all just from having a single photo taken of him! However, his family’s personal information was hacked, including their credit cards, social security, and addresses. He even received death threats against him and his family, showing the darker side of this latest upheaval of celebrities.
But back to my initial question—how do they become so famous instantly?

It boils down to a couple of things. First off, teenagers have the monopoly over the Internet and its trends. A single girl posted a picture, millions of people liked it, and boom! An internet star was born. This is the most “organic” way that this seems to happen, because it’s purely chance and it isn’t fabricated by any company or anything like that.

In reality, these new trends that companies try to create are usually failures, because when someone tries to impose something as “cool” to a teenager, especially if it’s an adult, they will disregard it completely because it’s just, well, weird to have an adult tell you what’s hip. It’s just wrong. Like Hillary Clinton’s hilariously awkward and staged Snapchat video that only blew up because of its failure. “Chillary” Clinton isn’t so chill after all.

Now, some people arise due to pure hunger for fame, likes, shares, and general acknowledgement in the media. But it’s a tricky game, because if it’s obvious that you’re just doing things for fame, then no one will want to follow you because we like some type of genuineness in the content we see. At least just to maintain our sanity and believe that not everything on the internet is fabricated and fake.  It’s easy for these stars to hide behind the cliché, “I love my fans so much! OMG ok now I’m gonna go spend all the money you made me, but love you!”
And yes, I am guilty of falling for this or being hungry for likes or fame or whatever, just as most teenagers are in this day and age. I wish that I could get millions of followers and likes and be famous just for doing nothing, like having a Twitter account that posts the exact same thing as ten other accounts. But I often wonder what makes me have this desire.

It all boils down to psychology. We see something that others have, and it seems great, so we want it too. Even if it brings serious consequences or dangers to privacy, we don’t care in the moment. This desire seems to have a hold on most teenagers today, as we are surrounded by social media and the pressures it puts on us socially.
So yeah, tweeting something funny and getting a lot of retweets is very satisfying, and getting a lot of likes on your selfie on Instagram is a great confidence boost, but this 15 minutes, or even seconds, of fame is extremely fleeting. One day you could be Alex from Target, and the next you’re those Chuck Norris jokes that make me cringe to this day. 

Works Cited

Bilton, Nick. "Alex From Target: The Other Side of Fame." The New York Times. The New York Times, 12 Nov. 2014. Web. 07 Oct. 2015. .
"Population of Canada." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 07 Oct. 2015. .