I have to admit, I have been enjoying the bit "marginal fame" generated by Mike Rowe posting my video on his Facebook Page. But it is not my fame that really factors in the equation. I know it is just the fringe of the Mike Rowe celebrity aura that I am enjoying here. Really, as much as I may have once liked it to be different, my singing voice is just passable. What I do have is a small nerdy niche, which I exploit when I can. That being said I find it a amusing that the idea of celebrity often equates to credibility. I had a student today tell me that I am famous. "Yep, I have my circles," I basically told her. "No, it's on Facebook with over five thousand likes, " she continued. I told her I knew and tried to get her to understand that it was not my personal fame that generated all the interest, but I get the idea that she still thinks it is about the number of likes rather than the interpretive nature of the video content. I am not sure this was the teachable moment. Content of thought over external celebrity. Have we found a new dream to augment Martin Luther King, jr.'s old one? I am certainly not oppressed, but does social media perpetuate understanding or does it instead divide us along previously undreamed lines? Here's the video request for a song to which I responded. You decide. |