Several informants described the changes that micro-celebrity brought about in people. An ex-girlfriend of an internet entrepreneur spoke wonderingly of his newfound predilection for expensive clothes and trendy restaurants, saying that she could no longer recognize in him the person she dated. Melissa Gira Grant described such men as “bubble hotties”: entrepreneurs who had gotten rich without developing the necessary social skills to handle it. Indeed, the attention and admiration that many micro-celebrities receive can be both validating and transformative. In Fame: The Psychology of Stardom, Andrew Evans and Glenn Wilson describe the difficulties of adjusting to newfound fame and how frequent positive feedback can lead to self-absorption, narcissism, and grandiosity, as well as a resentment of public scrutiny. While micro-celebrity exists on a much smaller scale than, say, film stardom, it is possible that the increased attention has similar effects. But mainstream celebrities have access to systems of attention brokerage, such as bodyguards, drivers, PR specialists, agents, and managers, while micro-celebrities rarely do. The nearly constant negative attention given to many micro-celebrities, particularly the critiques of appearance and sexuality targeted at women, requires a very thick skin.

Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, loc. 408