Connections: Popularity Contests

We all know that the 21st century is different than any era that preceded it. We agree that the technological revolution is creating change that is at least as profound, in terms of human experience, as the industrial revolution. Even more profound, perhaps.

I got some insight into the new world in the last few days when I came upon some astronomical social-media figures. Obviously, vast numbers of people are connecting with each other and following those they consider stars.

Last weekend, I read an interview with George Takei in The New York Times Magazine. It was not on my radar that he was a member of the original cast of “Star Trek” — my radar for things like science-fiction and retro television shows being admittedly weak — but I was drawn to the interview because he has written a musical based on his family’s experiences being interned as Japanese Americans during World War II.

The story of that stain on American justice has received long-overdue attention of late, in particular with the publication of Richard Reeves’s book “Infamy.” But what startled me, aside from Mr. Takei’s personal story, was the bare fact that, according to The Times, 8.7 million people follow him on Facebook.

Okay. Stop. Is this how we now define celebrity? I guess so.

A day later, Mr. Takei’s following was put in diminishing perspective. Taylor Swift, the pop music icon (and a personal favorite of my 7-year-old granddaughter), was in the news for taking a stand in regard to music royalties from Apple. And she, the story said, has 60 million followers — although whether that is an aggregate number or the number who follow her on Tumblr or Instagram, individually, was not clear. 

I have always liked numbers in news stories because they give weight to opinions, but millions of this magnitude become flat-out mind-numbing. With markets and media so very mass today, we have to start thinking not in tens or hundreds of thousands, but in millions. I am not sure I will be able to wrap my mind around this new math. 

Won’t the desire — or economic need — to garner clicks and “likes,” by its very nature, drive artists even more forcefully toward bland mediums and common-denominator formulas? And what could it mean, as far as cultural significance goes, if we compared Ms. Swift’s 60 million to the number of people who watched the Tony Awards in early June, 7.5 million? Or to the 36 million viewers who took in the Academy Awards in February? Do the millions tabulate to economic power, perhaps?

At its zenith, according to a recent article in The Atlantic, Time magazine reached 20 million readers around the world. Shaping public opinion was Time magazine’s business. Are Taylor Swift’s tweets forming public opinion now? Or does it work the other way around, with Ms. Swift’s 60 million followers expressing something shared in our culture, with which she and her handlers have simply been able to make hay? Is someone like Ms. Swift or Mr. Takei the force at work, or are they merely an expression of some sort of popular will?

They say kids on college campuses are following the news more than college kids were a generation ago, but not by reading The Times or Time, but by clicking on headlines that pop up on their news feeds. 

What does this portend? 

Is anyone counting the number of words they digest? 

And does anyone know any cultural philosophers who can help me make sense of this revolution?