15 Minutes of Fame and Today's Social Media
There’s an English saying: 15 minutes of fame.
In Western sports, a term has been in use for many years now: the streaker, or the pitch invader.
So what is a pitch invader, and what does it have to do with fame?
Pitch invasions have been happening in the West for decades. Using all sorts of methods, people would burst onto the field during a match — cricket, football, any sport. And the bigger and more important the match, the higher the chances of it happening.
It wasn’t just that people ran onto the field — everyone tried to do something unique. Some ran on naked, some in bizarre costumes. There was even a woman in the 70s who became famous for invading pitches, kissing famous players, and running off.
What was the point of all this? These people faced serious punishments — stadium bans, fines running into thousands of dollars. And still they kept coming.
Why? And what solution was finally found?
The purpose is obvious: these people do it all for a few minutes of fame. They want to put themselves on display on a big platform, and the weirder and more shocking the stunt, the more attention they get.
So what was the solution in the West?
A very simple one.
Give them no attention at all. Make them feel as if they don’t exist. Whenever a pitch invader appears, the TV cameras don’t show them and the commentators don’t say a word about them. Most of the time, viewers at home don’t even realize anything happened.
The same invaders exist on social media today — the people who show up to strip naked in anyone’s comment section or post.
If they get attention, they’ve won. That’s the whole game.
This post was written after one such streaker was rude to a teacher online.