Facebook fame has its hazards, says USF mass comm prof

Posted Sep 7, 2010 by Lindsay Peterson

Updated Sep 7, 2010 at 06:49 PM

Kelli Burns

You Tube, Facebook and other social media are creating a whole new class of stars. You, me, anyone of us could publish something on the web that’ll catch on any minute now.

But beware, says Kelli Burns, a University of South Florida mass communications professor.

Web fame has its pitfalls, she writes in her new book, Celeb 2.0: How Social Media Foster Our Fascination with Popular Culture.

“When you put yourself out there, you make yourself a target of critics and whatever happens – good or bad – goes with the territory,” she said in a USF news release

Even if you don’t seek fame but only friendship through Facebook and other networking sites, you could get into trouble.
Internet postings live long after the poster has moved on to another phase of life.

“We’re sharing a lot,” she says. “But you may be a different person in 10 years,” with a digital trail that leads back to some pretty immature or even damaging information.

“You can say that’s not the person I was, but still get stuck back there because that’s the past that’s available.”

Burns herself is a blogger who can be found at Twenty Months to Tenure.