I actually had no idea about who the hell was “Phil Fish”. When I heard it for the first time I thought it was “Selfish”. Anyways it was such an interesting case study on an internet celebrity. As an aspiring filmmaker I really envy Ian Danskin for coming up with such a fabulous video. As I said, leaning more towards the film and audio side, I had no prior knowledge towards the Games Industry or the most famous wrong Phil Fish (Danskin, 2014).
What really caught my attention was only the last six minutes of the video. Well my interest would definitely differ from that of an aspiring Gamer. So in correlation to my very first sentence, most of us do not know who Phil Fish is. This guy was just sub-culturally famous. I have always wondered about the social psychology behind how someone gets famous.
In today’s scenario, media can help us be reached by the entire world. But is that just good enough to become the center of attention? At-least for those who want to be? In 2007 Kim Kardashian was the talk on the internet after the release of her sex tape (O’toole, 2013). This gave me an opinion that the people are more interested in negative publicity.
Similarly in Phil’s case, Whenever he tweets something positive, it is never a news. “Phil Fish was a symbol of everything wrong with Indie games and is news worthy only when he acts like one” (Danskin, 2014). Though Kim and Phil are different kinds of people, they shared a similarity – fame happened to them. Fame did not come their way just because they were talented. They were excessively talked about on the media and internet. Why they were talked about on the internet was for all the wrong reasons. Hence, “we” made them famous.
In addition to that, Phil gained more popularity when he was hated further. What this explains is the behaviour of the people who follow him. People cared about what this guy was up to. And they cared because of Phil’s negative attitude. Social Media is the biggest platform through which all these are even possible. If there was no twitter or facebook. The entire Phil Fish’s story would not even have existed. It alsosums up to the equation where it is easier to become popular in this world if we choose to go the wrong way with the presence of social media. Whatever we do, others are always watching us.
Refences
O’toole, C. (2013). Sure, She’s Beautiful, but why Kim Kardashian famous? Retrieved from http://www.wetpaint.com/kardashians/articles/sure-shes-beautiful-but-why-is-kim-kardashian-famous
Ian Danskin. (2014). This is Phil Fish [Video File]. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmTUW-owa2w
nishanthrd 
You couldn’t have said it better. These days a lot of people are gaining popularity because of negative aspects. Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus are also good examples of this. The way she performed at The VMA Awards caused massive publicity but not in the right way. It’s a shame that people are famous for the wrong reasons.
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That’s right indeed. People who gain negative fame cannot survive in the industry for long. They will be forgotten even quicker than how long it took them to become famous.
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Completely agree and the whole “Celebutante” thing (famous for being famous) with Kim, Miley etc. is just ridiculous. And yet, that kind of ‘drama’ seems to be what sells …
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