Authenticity, Celebrities and Twitter
Authenticity online is a tricky concept. Most of the clues we need to decide about authenticity are non-verbal, and rely on being at the same place at the same time. It’s all about presence. When presence is lacking, we put extra stress on the other clues — in particular the verbal ones that have to do with consistency, clarity, and context. The slightest sign that any of those 3 are lacking or dubious in some way gets our hackles and suspicions up. On the Internet no one knows you’re a dog, but at the slightest bark or growl, we’re starting to guess and jumping to conclusions.
All of this is magnified on Twitter, and magnified again for celebrities. Magnified on Twitter because the genre is so limited. We get even less information, so we have to put more stress on what we do have. Magnified for celebrities, because what we really want from them is them being typically themselves, not necessarily very human, or fallible, or even (depending on the celeb) interesting. We want them to fulfill our images of them. A touch of humanity, perhaps, and a whole lot of glam.
That’s a tall order to fill. Although of course we bring the glam to the subject, don’t we? The celebrity I follow on Twitter that comes the closest is Stephen Fry. He’s witty, direct, self-deprecating occasionally, and almost always interesting. He combines tweeting about doing the shopping or going to the dentist with wit and insight. He’s usually on location somewhere exotic, looking at interesting things or making witty comments on what’s around him. He doesn’t gossip, much. He’s grumpy sometimes, which rounds out our picture of him satisfactorily, and we interest ourselves in his slightest twitch.
The rest of us have to be funny, or helpful, or fulfill some real need to garner followers on Twitter. Celebrities just have to be like themselves. In a sense, we bring the authenticity to them.
All of this is magnified on Twitter, and magnified again for celebrities. Magnified on Twitter because the genre is so limited. We get even less information, so we have to put more stress on what we do have. Magnified for celebrities, because what we really want from them is them being typically themselves, not necessarily very human, or fallible, or even (depending on the celeb) interesting. We want them to fulfill our images of them. A touch of humanity, perhaps, and a whole lot of glam.
That’s a tall order to fill. Although of course we bring the glam to the subject, don’t we? The celebrity I follow on Twitter that comes the closest is Stephen Fry. He’s witty, direct, self-deprecating occasionally, and almost always interesting. He combines tweeting about doing the shopping or going to the dentist with wit and insight. He’s usually on location somewhere exotic, looking at interesting things or making witty comments on what’s around him. He doesn’t gossip, much. He’s grumpy sometimes, which rounds out our picture of him satisfactorily, and we interest ourselves in his slightest twitch.
The rest of us have to be funny, or helpful, or fulfill some real need to garner followers on Twitter. Celebrities just have to be like themselves. In a sense, we bring the authenticity to them.
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Nick Morgan is author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma, and President of Public Words Inc, a communications consulting firm. (http://trustmethebook.com/; http://www.publicwords.com)
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