Remember MySpace? If you do, it might age you, but time changes everything and everyone and is something that defines who you are and the life you’ve led.
Anyway…
I never had a MySpace page though I did meet some who worked for the online platform in Asia and found most of them to be pretentious, nerdy, insecure and look like ferrets.
Maybe, I met the wrong people.
It really wasn’t that long ago when everyone, who desperately wanted to be seen as being cool and hip and popular had their own MySpace page.
It was like wearing a badge of honour which automatically placed them in some rarefied position.
I guess these were the beginnings of being “influencers” and the usual trail of bs that follows this plastic fandango.
This generation of the wannabe Cool hadn’t as yet reached the Age Of The Influencer and The KOL, but, of course, this has come, and it’s also going away after a reasonable good run.
The only holdouts around are those bitten by the bug of showing off nouveau riche Marcus Linius Crassness and how money is everything and all that matters.
Remember Perez Hilton? Wasn’t he the queen of showbiz gossip and an influencer AND a KOL around this time?
Where’s old Perez today and how relevant is he?
If one ever reads up on old Hollywood, two of the most powerful “influencers” and “KOLs”were gossip columnists Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons.
They made and broke careers and had shoeshine people provide them with LA Confidential tips whereas extremely private photographs that were somehow made public made stars of many almost overnight.
And now?
Well, the Kardashians are still around and struggling to be KOLS, but age is a bitch, and all that everything surrounding the Diddy squad squat parties have seen many KOLS involved in the hip hop industry scramble to leave their par-taying past behind and hide under the covers.
Then again, isn’t it strange or karmic that the above is happening at a time when what is known as social media is disappearing faster than people think?
Maybe we’ve had enough of bad news, darkness and bad vibes?
Let’s not, but let’s look at Facebook today and scroll through what’s suddenly become the home of “digital creators”, there are “friends” you don’t know, and those practically living online at that sundown place known as Happily Retired with Eleanor Rigby.
Mother Facebook, which, these days, looks like a dilapidated haunted house not unlike the Bates Motel is today overflowing with more and more ads for unknown products that can easily be blocked.
All of a sudden there’s a tsunami of warnings that your phone is full of malware that a certain app can clear and creepy crawly snippets from porn sites appearing on Facebook.
It’s all very time consuming and unnecessary, especially when ads cut into a handful of excellent interviews, brilliant television shows like “Seinfeld” and even music concerts.
Maybe Facebook isn’t what it was meant to be, but what mangled animal has it become?
What some might not realise is that part of the initial funding for Facebook supposedly came from a certain billionaire in Hong Kong, who was to later, so one heard, invest in Spotify.
Why invest in Facebook?
For the data which provided pinpoint accuracy when targeting customers who might frequent his company’s large chain of supermarkets.
Why invest in Spotify?
For the constantly changing consumer database that’s relevant and needed for any business.
Instagram, meanwhile, boomed during the Covid years when many, especially ladies I know in Eastern Europe, used their down time to create bucket lists of where to travel and meet new people for good times when restrictions were lifted.
Meanwhile, Twitter became X under Elon Musk, and is still a popular online platform to watch videos of cute cats and other cute animals and make a buffet of everything and nothing.
YouTube is what it always was with some YouTubers more popular than others and apparently certain cats- again, the feline kind- being just as popular as Shawn Mendes once was, and where The Bieb was discovered by the suddenly very low-key Scooter Braun all those years ago.
Spotify?
Pass, other than seeing how its devalued music just like Facebook and Instagram have made too many think that they’re “creative”.
Like push-button technology making fast food sounds and described as music, Facebook clutter has seen a lowering of standards with too many too young to know thinking that “likes” and emojis show popularity and KOLness.
Others confuse this with marketing.
Websites and blogs continue aimlessly and without many understanding the need for this content needing to be on the most effective medium for the message in order for it to be seen and, perhaps even read.
Duh.
These sites should also be about having a business model that actually makes money instead of haemorrhaging any financial investment by believing in the usual numbers game comprising bots.
Podcasts have become the latest kinda new online medium du jour, but these depend on who is the host, how much engagement there is and if it’s part of something much bigger.
Maybe- just maybe- we’re returning to some form of normality and embracing the real world, even with all its problems, and putting Humpty Dumpty together again.
We have to because most of what is out there isn’t very good, though it’s probably pointless mentioning this as an already divisive world has become even more bitty.
It’s like The Clash Of The Trashtans.
It almost makes one miss reality shows and Keeping Up With The Kardashians and the transitioning of Bruce Caitlin Jenner.
If we knew what we know now, keeping up with the Kardashians could have been rather good voyeuristic television fun.
Right now, there’s the need to stop this Anything Goes world and make the time for a completely new adventure and looking at life’s priorities and see what might have gotten away from us.
It’s about finding ourselves in a brilliant new clearing full of Hope and optimism and suitable for all ages, especially the children.
Happy Holidays.
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