Karim’s posterous

It seems like every day more and more celebrities are getting on twitter, from Ashon, to Britney to Xzibit to Russel Brand. I don't know about you, but I find the twittering of these mordern day demi-gods absolutely fascinating. It's awesome to see just how ordinary some of these celebrities are, and in some cases, have our theories about their aid-headedness confirmed.

This got me thinking about the appeal of twitter to these kind of people. Sure there's the marketing perspective, great too to manage your fanbase and get the word out there. But it also much be very relieving for these people to be able to quickly, easily and succinctly communicate with normal people without the usually intermediary of big media. In a sense, Twitter allows these celebrities to be 'normal' in a secure and protected way.

It was inevitable that the barrier-breaking power of the internet would eventually crack the sheltered world of celebs just as it did that of well known brands and faceless corporations, and more notably presedential candidates. A decade or more ago it'd be unthinkable to have the top management and presedential hopefuls would be blogging, responding to user feedback and twittering all in a transparent forum. Now that we've seen these type of people join the social media game, it's not surprising celebrities would get in on the act too.

This type of interaction could change the way we percieve celebrities in the future though. Instead of allowing paparazzi to sell their holiday snaps, celebs can post them themselves. In stead of lenthly and tiring interviews, they can reply back to people directly on twitter. Waiting for your daily fix of celebrity gossip? No need, the celebs can give it to you from the 'horse's' mouth. It could also change the way celebrities work, maybe encouring them to steal some tactics from the plethora of web-made celebrities.

However it plays out, I can only see this direct interaction between celebs and their fans as beeing a good thing. Oh and by the way, Di Caprio, you're last movie sucked!