I've been reading Snow Crash and there's this great passage when Hiro is in the Metaverse and he explains:
The Movie Star Quadrant is easier to look at. Actors love to come here because in The Black Sun, they always look as good as they do in the movies. And unlike a bar or club in Reality, they can get into this place without physically having to leave their mansion, hotel suite, ski lodge, private airline cabin, or whatever. They can strut their stuff and visit with their friends without any exposure to kidnappers, paparazzi, script-flingers, assassins, exspouses, autograph brokers, process servers, psycho fans, marriage proposals, or gossip columnists.
This book was published in 1992!
This is what social media in general and Twitter in particular has done for celebrities. They can "hang out with their fans" online without "physically having to leave their mansion, hotel suite, ski lodge, private airline cabin, or whatever. They can strut their stuff and visit with their friends without any exposure to kidnappers, paparazzi, script-flingers, assassins, exspouses, autograph brokers, process servers, psycho fans, marriage proposals, or gossip columnists."
I don't think I've seen Twitter's value to the big names that increasingly make up its content consumption explained so well. And this was written 14 years before Twitter was created.
I am heading back to Snow Crash for more insights now.
