For those of you who don’t know, Science Everywhere was founded by Anthony Morgan, a guy with a dream, a video camera, and a lot of spare time. Several years later, he is still has all of those things, including the same video camera, because dreams don’t pay much. But he does have a little less time recently, because he’s becoming famous.
He was born to be a star. Or an extra in a Captain Morgan commercial.
You may have seen him on Daily Planet recently, or maybe his TEDx talk, or maybe in one of our Youtube videos, or his appearances on Steven and Chris, or Cityline, and rumour has it that he was the original voice of the kid from Caillou. He was also named one of Canada’s Top Change-Makers by the CBC recently, a broadcaster that you know is super hip and relevant because their hit show right now is Anne of Green Gables.
“Know what Canada needs right now? More Anne of Green Goddamn Gables” – CBC
So Anthony is becoming a pretty big deal. And this worries me. I’ve known Anthony for over a decade, and he’s always been the same kooky, off-beat, fun-loving sort of guy that you see on screen. He’s also been utterly destitute the entire time I’ve known him, to the point that his signature look involves a free hat that Goorin Bros. hat shop gave him four years ago to get him the hell off their storefront window.
That. That’s the hat. It doesn’t even fit him.
So what’s going to happen to him now that he’s famous? Let’s take a look at what happens to a person who stumbles into the spotlight, and imagine how that might apply to Anthony.
Adaptation to adoration
Everyone has a yearning to be recognized and loved by at least some people, its part of basic human development. Famous people get this sort of attention in droves, and it changes them. The neural reward centres that light up when a “normie” gets paid attention to are constantly firing for famous people, and they adapt to it so they don’t feel as special for the same old standing-O anymore. Which is why celebrities constantly seek more and more attention.
Sounds familiar
How it will change Anthony
A regular person gets a normal amount of love and attention. Anthony, on the other hand, accosts people on the street just to talk about the alphabet. He made himself a pair of touch-screen gloves just to feel contact. It’s safe the say Anthony isn’t getting the right amount of love in his daily life.
Heck, his face is blocked out by punctuation in his own bio
It’s possible that some fame might just bring Anthony up to usual levels of love and recognition, leading to a strange and unusual warmth within him that the rest of society calls “normal”.
Loss of Self
According to this paper, becoming famous leads to a loss of self-identity. Constant attention leads to a psychological “entitization” process, in which a person loses their sense of being a person and starts to feel like an object, or toy. Fame makes a person lose who they really are and start to think of themselves as the public sees them.
Years in the public eye left the Trix Rabbit wondering if he was, indeed, just a silly rabbit.
How it will change Anthony
Actually, thinking of himself as the public sees him might be a huge upgrade in Anthony’s eyes. “Personable science expert” is a lot better than “guy who eats funyuns three meals a day”. What’s Anthony holding onto? Wanna know a secret? “Anthony” isn’t even his real name. He’s obviously running from himself to begin with, he’s more than ready to be objectified.
“Objectify me! OBJECTIFY MEEEEEE!!!”
Wealth
Famous people usually become wealthy, and wealth changes people too. Wealth clouds moral judgment, decreases empathy, and leads to the belief that income inequality is justified, and that the rich are just better than everyone else. No wonder rich people are always evil in movies.
The Monopoly guy hunts orphans at night
How it will change Anthony
This will probably be the biggest change for Anthony. It’s not that Anthony doesn’t have any money – he absolutely doesn’t – but he doesn’t care about money in the least. I’ve literally seen him write both halves of a two-person writing job, then give his half of the fee to the other guy. I’ve seen him eat funyuns for three consecutive meals, because he gave his only income to the guy who didn’t do his half of the writing. If the research mentioned above is right, Rich Anthony would be the exact opposite of what current Anthony is. He would be morally questionable and low in empathy, and he might even STOP EATING FUNYUNS! It would be like Bizarro Anthony.
Although at least Bizarro Anthony would update his hat
Mistrust and Loneliness
As Britney Spears told us in “Lucky”, fame comes with the price of soul-crushing loneliness. According to this paper, fame makes people more mistrustful of others, because they’re never sure if all the hangers-on around them really want to be their friend or just want a hand-out. This mistrust leads to a deep sense of loneliness, which is why these tears come at night.
Fortunately, this song helped Britney get over her loneliness and she never had any problems ever again
How it will change Anthony
Obviously, Anthony has skyrocketed far beyond any levels of fame Britney Spears ever experienced, so he must be getting mistrustful and lonely. Except I know for a fact he is incapable of being lonely, because he just approaches strangers with music when he wants to talk to someone. And some mistrust might actually be good for Anthony, because he’s still waiting for that Nigerian Prince to transfer funds over. To this day, he can’t name all the people with login info for Science Everywhere’s website and bank account.
“Dan! I just got an email from a guy saying if we leave our company’s savings in an alley behind the grocery store, he can expand our brand in Eastern Europe! Seems like a good business opportunity!”
Verdict
Fame changes people in terrible ways, and it may change Anthony, too. He could be more loved by people, appreciated by the public, more responsible with his finances, and more wary of the people around him…which doesn’t seem so bad, actually. Maybe he’s ready for this, after all.
Or maybe he’ll just go on being the same old Anthony.
Probably that last one, actually.
You must be logged in to post a comment.