Celeb News: Rihanna and Beyoncé define the social web spectrum

RihRihGirrrl

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It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with Rihanna and Beyonce. I devour their every post on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Tumblr.

But as I’ve been following them both online, I’ve started to notice something intriguing about the way they each use the social Web and what it means about a future where everyone has some sort of presence online, a future that we seem to be barreling toward with increasing speed each day.

The first thing to know, however, is that they each sit on opposite sides of the spectrum in terms of how one can use the Web to give their followers, friends and audience a peephole in the lives they lead and the worlds they inhabit.

First, Rihanna. The seasoned pop singer, as one of my friends described it, is “completely nuts.”

To say that Rihanna, whose breezy, electro-synth dance tracks have been unofficial dance club anthems for the past six months, is prolific on her media of choice, Instagram and Twitter, would be an understatement. On any given day, she posts dozens of updates and photos on both sites, chronicling her round-the-clock antics with a raw, unfiltered quality that feels borderline unhinged.

Many of her photos have a grainy, pixelated quality, the result of taking photographs of herself with the front-facing iPhone camera. Sometimes these self-portraits present Rihanna in full glamor. She likes to show off her lean, shapely figure, mostly through MySpace-style cam shots, scantily clad and pouting in a bathroom or full-length mirror, and she’s especially fond of uploading pictures of herself with thick curls of smoke snaking from either her nose, her mouth or a combination of both. She seems to be completely uncensored by anyone sensible in her camp — she often curses and is not above lashing out at anyone who takes a jab at her on Twitter, even MTV, which plays her videos for her fans. She once posted nothing but song lyrics from her latest album, sometimes juxtaposed with photographs, for 24 hours.

Beyonce, on the other hand, a pop icon, maintains a cool, poised presence on the Web. Her preferred outlets are Tumblr and Twitter, kind of. (Her last — and only — tweet is from the fifth of April, announcing her Tumblr to her four million followers.) She (or the New York-based development firm that manages her site) frequently posts gorgeous, glossy photographs of Ms. Knowles and her family that convey the sense of flipping through the vacation photos of your wealthier, more attractive and popular college roommate. She’s often shown barefoot on white sand beaches, curled up in lounge wear, thumbing through magazines on a boat, holding hands and gazing wistfully at her husband, the rapper Jay-Z. Sometimes, the site features handwritten notes from Beyonce, written in beautiful swirling swoops that someone has scanned and uploaded to her site.

Each of their touches couldn’t be more personal or more aligned with their brand. Beyonce, already a mirage of shimmering sequins and flowing hair, carefully maintains that distance from her fans, while still feeding their appetites for more personal insight and access to her personal life. But you’d never see a lock or a curl out of place, none of the unfettered messiness that Rihanna, a wild child known for racy lyrics and even racier videos, enthusiastically embraces through her online presence.

As others have noted, Beyonce is cleverly controlling the conversation about herself and steering it in a way that is charming, palatable and easily digestible – something that other celebrities, like Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus, have struggled to do. But in a sense, Rihanna is too – albeit conveying the message that she’s earned the right to do as she pleases; like her music, it speaks volumes about her success and who she is.

But the deeper takeaway that relates to you and me is this: Beyonce and Rihanna represent two ways to use social media, a decision that most of us will have to make about the face we put forward to the world, via the Web, particularly as Facebook and Twitter continue to race toward an endgame of being universal social utilities, YellowPages for everyone who uses the Web.

Will you be a Beyonce, and present a carefully groomed version of yourself to the Web? One carefully designed and maintained by yourself, or a third party, to ensure that you don’t screw up your career, your relationship or your education with one misfired photograph or tweet? It sounds extreme, but it happens – more frequently than most of us would like to think about. Or will you take Rihanna’s road and throw caution to the wind, baring your life, your friends and occasionally, your unmentionables?

Of course, there is a larger question at play here. Do you really have to choose a version of yourself to proffer to the online world? Of course not. You can twist the privacy dials of all your feeds way, way up, ensuring that only the select few you anoint have access to your photographs, location, tweets and other bits of digital minutiae. But that reality is not realistic for the majority of the people who flock to the social Web. Those people – me included – are interested in appealing to an audience for some purpose or another, the largest one that they can lure. And for that sector of users, private and privacy is not an option.

NY Times Blog

primo.

Oh gorl, I'm not reading all that but that's nice and stuff.

AnotherGagaFan

Gaga should be in this article. So should Bieber.

MrBeyonceFan

2 Black Women Doing Their Thing

Deemy

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Originally posted by AnotherGagaFan

Gaga should be in this article. So should Bieber.

Did u even read the article?

ethan

I'm totally a Beyonce on social media sites

Reza

Sorry but Beyonce does NOT represent social media in any way. If anything Britney and gaga should be there. Britney was the original queen of twitter and actually interacts with her fans in a respectable way with her tweets. Bey doesn't even use her twitter and basically pays her fans dust on a daily basis.

RihRihGirrrl

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Originally posted by AnotherGagaFan

Gaga should be in this article. So should Bieber.

It's not about who's more prevalent in social media, it's about 2 popstars that represent the social spectrum and the very different ways social media can be used.

Musiclover1987

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