(8 minute read)

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Everyone Has A Role

“…the difference between modern societies and the small-scale hunter-gatherer communities in which human nature took shape…: ‘everyone is famous in a tribe…’ …for human beings, the need to be recognized is almost as basic as food.”

Thomas de Zengotita, Mediated: How The Media Shapes Your World And The Way You Live In It, Bloomsbury, 2005

“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”

Pintus Holtun, Larry Rivers, Nat Finkelstein, but certainly not Andy Warhol, circa mid 20th century

Although the above quote is often attributed to Andy Warhol, he denied coining the phrase in 1980. Nevertheless, the sentiment behind it still has some value. Still, providing some context would help.

The idea that everyone will earn world-wide fame is not realistic. Achieving fame, even for a paltry 15 minutes, is not something to be taken seriously. Nonetheless, social media usage has grown over the past two decades. Given this growth, Pintus, Larry, and Nat seem like a modern day Nostradamus (again, not Andy).

While it is easy to think that social media companies like Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, etc. are known and used by “everyone” that designation is not true.

According to the Washington, D.C. based Pew Research Center, social media usage increased dramatically over the years. From 5% of the adult population in 2005 to nearly 50% in 2011. Ten years later In 2021 nearly 75% of the adult population reported engage with some form of social media.

It’s a lot of people, but it’s not everyone. Not everyone uses all of the platforms. This makes it hard for that “everyone uses it” to hold up.

Given their usage, reach, and power of persuasion, it is easy to think that there is potential for becoming world-famous.

What drives us? What motivates us? What is the allure of all that face-time with all those electronics and apps loaded onto them? Are we really looking for that 15 minutes, as not Andy promised? Are we all really that craven to be recognized? Do we just want to do something that draws attention to us? Is there another factor playing a role? Is there a dark force lurking in the minds of users? What makes people want to push content around the world with the click of a thumb.

If we revisit de Zengotita’s quote, it is clear that there is a main motivator. Yes, fame and recognition can be a byproduct. But the yearning for it comes from something much more primordial.

De Zengotita is an anthropologist, a student and educator of anthropology. Anthropology, according to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary), is “the study of human societies and cultures and their development.” The discipline is interested in studying the biological, cultural, historical, and a number of other (i.e., languages, etc.) developments exclusively among civilized human beings and separate from the animal kingdom.

It is important to study the habits, customs, traits, and a myriad of other aspects of early civilizations. They inform us how various civilizations arrived. They also show the common traits we have with them.

In other words, we try to figure out their world to understand and figure out ours.

Sound familiar?

De Zengotita is one of those respected anthropological sleuths. An alum of Columbia University, he earned a Ph.D. in anthropology, taught at the Dalton School and New York University, and was a contributing editor at Harper’s magazine. He is well known for writing the aforementioned book. He is also noted for his contributions to the documentary, Teenage Paparazzo.

He formally studied anthropology and our media forms of communication and its effect on western culture. His latest effort is challenging academia “across the world to come together to …create a new humanism out of the diversity of identities” (see his latest book, Postmodern Theory and Progressive Politics).

But it is his works in Mediated that we are looking at here today. It is truly one of those books that thoroughly helps to define the world in which we are living in. It is one of those books that comes along in a generation.

Media academics and career media personalities should stand up and take notice. An outsider to the media studies discipline explains the real-world effects of media usage on western civilization.

I have enjoyed a career in media. Later, I taught it until retirement. I’ve learned not to rely so much on those tomes coming from academics writing for their own disciplines. They are valuable and we do get some solid research. To validate their existence they often repeat the same myths and storied histories (see The Myth of the War of the Worlds Panic). They seem to hold the same tenets. “Media studies are important,” they say, “because, well, I’m teaching in it. Therefore, it must be important.”

But I’ve more often enjoyed reading authors from outside the discipline looking in.

Case in point. While teaching under-and graduate students (public relations) I’ve often been asked what is the one book I would recommend? My answer has always been, “The Soul Of The Chef,” by Michael Ruhlman.

That book has nothing to do with public relations.

Ruhlman describes in great detail the one common thread among all chefs. Whether uncelebrated or celebrated, they share a passion and integrity for their work and craft.

They. Love. What. They. Are. Doing.

Frankly, Ruhlman’s work can be enjoyed by anyone desiring to find that “burning in your belly” purpose. But for public relation students, the thrust of the recommendation was to commit. Do what you love to do with the same passion that is described in the book. If you don’t have that burning passion, try to find it again. If one day you find that it’s gone, either rediscover it or get out of that career. Find something that’ll make you burn again.

De Zongotita defines with utter clarity the purpose of modern media. He explains why we engage with it and why we find it so satisfying. Each individual defines their very lives by it. There’s an itch that gets scratched and it’s an itch that is still burned within our DNA.

In early civilizations, when tribes were forming, the group was small enough that everyone knew each other. Everyone in that tribe had a purpose and everyone knew their purpose and everyone’s purpose.

OK, a bit too simplistic. But the sentiment is the same. Everyone was known and everyone was known to have a purpose and meaning for themselves and the tribe.

We don’t live in tribes anymore. However, that desire to be known is still deep within us. We need it as much as we need air, water, and food. And that, de Zengotita thinks, is what drives us to use social media. We want to fill the void. We have the drive to make a difference and find a reason to be here. We seek a chance to be cherished, earn some recognition, or be valued.

Even it’s only as fleeting as 15-minutes.

If you’ve made it this far in reading this article, I want you to know something. I used to admonish my students to freely engage with their choice of social media platforms. But use them wisely. And know why you are using them (know thyself). There is an inherent wish to be known. The thrill you get with a “like” or “thumbs up” is proof of this hidden, yet open motivation.

Hidden, yet, open motivation? Yep. To be validated as someone that matters, has purpose and meaning …that wish transcends any of the clicks, likes, or followers you have. Purpose and meaning is much more than that.

It’s like food, air, and water. And we need it.

No one can tell you what your purpose or meaning is or should be. You’ll have to find that out for yourself. You’re already doing things every day that prove that some desire is there. Now recognize it, tap into it, nurture it to find out what “it” is.