Elle Young | On October 12, 2015
These days, you don’t need a publicist or famous parents or even have talent (gasp!) to become famous.
The rise of high-speed Internet has made it possible for any ordinary person to have their five minutes of fame—or rather, infamy, as it is in most cases.
As everyone with a passing familiarity with the Internet will know: 1) once anything is online it is almost impossible to take it off and 2) never underestimate the power of the Internet lynch mob. This is why the following ways are certainly not recommended when you’re in pursuit of Internet fame.
Being caught on camera engaging in unlawful and/or destructive behavior.
This one may be obvious, but all these new cases that keep on popping up in my newsfeed suggest otherwise. Every now and then, videos and photos will show up of:
- People posing with their loot on social media.
- People waving for the camera as they destroy vehicles and public property.
- People smiling as they stand in front of areas they just vandalized.
And so forth.
It’s one of those situations where bystanders and Facebook friends will stare and go “I can’t believe they thought it would be a good idea to post this!” Not-so-friendly viewers will bypass that step and take the evidence straight to law enforcement.
Overreacting to an innocent comment.
What happens in these situations is that two people will be talking or texting one another when a seemingly innocuous comment made by one party will then be taken out of context by the other person. This person will then make the bad decision to publicly ‘shame’ the other party instead of respecting their privacy.
However, this usually backfires spectacularly. If there’s anything that netizens get peeved at, it’s so-called drama queens, especially when the person who’s overreacting tries to humiliate the other party or attempt to get them fired.
Appearing insensitive to modern day tragedies.
There are the people that decide that dressing up as the burning Twin Towers or a Boston Marathon victim for Halloween is a great idea. Then there are inappropriate selfies taken where they definitely should not be. Auschwitz is a good example. Finally, there’s Twitter. Never underestimate the amount of vitriol 140 characters can conjure up, as one poorly thought-out tweet can ruin your life if you’re not careful.
It’s true that all of these scenarios can be avoided with a lick of common sense, but as some people like to say: common sense isn’t always so common. As a number of accidental celebrities have learned through various combinations of poor judgment, you don’t want to piss off the Internet because random strangers will soon be calling for their pound of flesh within a day. When that happens, all you can do is try and wait out the storm—because the bright side is that the Internet also has a notoriously short attention span. Let’s just hope it isn’t a slow news day.
Feature Photo via