R6: Katy Perry

Throughout the existence of celebrities, we have always been fascinated with how they live, what they are doing, and (most importantly) if they are just like us. Through the use of social networks like Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, we get a personal look into the actions as well as the thoughts of both major and minor celebrities. As Alice Marwick put in her essay ‘To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter’, “Reality TV popularized a behind-the-scenes, self-conscious examination of celebrity construction; online, this goes one step further.” (Marwick 141) Pretty much anything celebrities want to share with the world, they now can.

Taking a look at the most followed account on Twitter belonging to the singer Katy Perry, she has a direct link to 97.3 million followers who are able to receive updates on everything she posts from updates about her new album, to her dissatisfaction about the ending of Coachella. 

As Marwick said that reality TV made popular the trend of behind-the-scenes, Katy Perry is able to use that to her advantage when tweeting about her new album. Being that she has access that almost none of her fans would have, she is able to keep people filled in on things that are going on behind the scenes when filming music videos or recording songs or performing at concerts. This almost makes following her Twitter account a place where you can get exclusive content that few other people would be able to get. And, you are getting accurate information as it is coming directly from the source.

Also, the action of Katy Perry replying to individual users through Twitter makes it even more similar to how in the older days, fans would write letters and hope that one day they may receive a letter back from the celebrity they were writing. Now, because the Internet moves at the speed of light, someone can write to Katy Perry from anywhere in the world and receive a reply in seconds from the singer herself. Once example of this was when Katy Perry was asking for pictures of pies with “KP4” on them. One user sent it in and she was wondering if it was store bought or home made. She then received a response from someone else entirely who pointed out the pie was homemade. Conversations like this almost feel like something you could have with one of your best friends but you are in fact having it with a singer who has an audience of nearly 100 million people online.

Work Cited:

Marwick, Alice, and boyd, Danah. “To See and Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter.” Convergence May 2011 vol. 17 no. 2 139-158. http://www.academia.edu/755942/To_See_and_Be_Seen_Celebrity_Practice_on_Twitter. (viewed 4/23/2017).