Fame and famous people

A generation ago the answer would have been singers, footballers and a handful of television presenters, all of whom had passed through some kind of gatekeeper. Nowadays the fastest route to fame in Vietnam is a phone and a personality. Food reviewers, comedy sketch makers and people who simply film their daily life in the countryside can gather millions of followers within a year, and some are better known among teenagers than any film star. Athletes still break through, but usually only after an international medal. As for responsibility, I think famous people have one whether they like it or not, though I'd limit it. It's unreasonable to expect a singer to be a saint in private. What they do owe the public is honesty in anything they profit from. When an influencer promotes a slimming product or an investment scheme to fans who trust them, and it turns out to be worthless, real people lose money, and saying they were only paid to read a script is no excuse. That said, audiences bear some blame too, for treating popularity as if it were expertise. Looking ahead, I'd say becoming famous will get easier and staying famous much harder. The tools are free and an algorithm can lift anyone overnight, but that same algorithm moves on within weeks. So we'll probably see far more people who are known briefly to a narrow audience, and far fewer of the household names that an entire country recognises.