Current Doctor Who Warns Against Facebook

judgecorp writes "Matt Smith, the current actor playing Doctor Who, doesn't use Facebook or Twitter, despite his geek icon status. He worries that social media encourages us to create "surrogate versions" or "celebrity versions" of ourselves. He also, arguably, doesn't need their help, being a celebrity already. Smith made the comments in St Petersburg, where he hosted the final of Microsoft's Imagine Cup for student inventors, won this year by a British team with a mesh music-playing application."

Comments

Surrogate versions? Andy Warhol said it best.

[MisterSquid]

He worries that social media encourages us to create "surrogate versions" or "celebrity versions" of ourselves.

Creating a surrogate or celebrity version of oneself is precisely the point of Facebook. It is a version of the self that can be exchanged through a social medium with others. That "surrogate" self can be be cited, exalted, devalued, and circulated. It's "celebrity" for people who don't necessarily have access to major media channels and networks of people to promote a traditional media celebrity self.

Everyone's gonna get their 15 minutes.

The question, to my mind, is why Matt Smith believe this is any different than the media that have made a surrogate version of him.