How did attention-seeking personalities find outlets before the rise of social media?

[CoffeeMumForever]

ita interesting to think that social media has given such an outlet for these types who showcase everything and love attention. So how did similar characters get their regular Fixes of attention before social
media and was there certain circles they moved in? I mean instagram influencer types and mum influencers and those who showcase their lives, not actual celebrities

Reality TV and trashy magazines like take a break. Or if you were a higher brow attention seeker the local newspaper letters page.

Someone i knew used to get her tits out in Nuts / Zoo and sold stories to Take a Break etc. Now she's got a podcast.

Care to share? I have at least 2 in mind 😂

I think I was sat next to one a this week. Had to get up and leave. She did nothing but talk about herself and how fantastic she was. Hero stories about herself. Commanding the attention in the room. Borderline shouting instead of talking. She was about 70. I’m guessing when they have an audience they try To lap the attention up. This women barely took a breath and started talking again trying to get any attention she could.

TV or radio
there used to be lots of student radio stations and more small radio stations generally

magazines - not necessarily the big glossy ones but smaller photocopied magazines or fanzines

They just had to do it locally so it would naturally be curtailed, which is a good thing. They would be their local pub bore or have a reputation of being loud and lairy.

One of the main issues of social media is that it gives people who know nothing but like spouting off seemingly the same validity as an expert on a subject who has something really interesting to say. In the past their stupid opinions would not get an airing apart from very locally and they would be told to shut up.

99.999% of the people on social media do and say nothing of any interest whatsoever, although they imagine their opinions are worth something.

If they all disappeared overnight it would be no loss.

There were far fewer people who made it into the public eye before the advent of social media and influencing, although some people did feature in Take a Break etc but they still had to find someone to write their story. Nowadays everyone can self-publish so there are no physical limits in the way that a magazine would have had a finite number of pages, for example. And mags were published weekly or monthly, whereas social media content can be published by the minute

Previously the people you’d see in newspapers and magazines were actors, models, sports people, musicians, politicians, TV presenters, Royals etc - basically people who regularly featured somewhere on mainstream TV. Then along came TV experiments like Big Brother, and along came social media, and suddenly everyone had a platform and “fame” wasn’t the preserve of a select few any more.

It’s exhausting. I preferred the good old days of hard-copy newspapers and magazines!

Kiss and Tell stories springs to mind.

'My Steamy Night with Premier Footballer' etc.

They rang their friends’ landlines, and sobbed down the phone / banged on and on. Sometimes to several friends in a row. And yep, they were pub bores too.

I don't know but I have only contempt for them.

I think it’s a bit mean to call them attention seekers. They probably do it because people enjoy watching their content and in some cases they can make money out of it, in other cases it’s just nice to talk about the things that you’re passionate about and it’s even better if people are interested in hearing what you have to say.

Admittedly I’ve never followed a “mumfluencer” as I don’t have kids so content about life with children doesn’t interest me. I follow other instagram accounts though which are to do with my hobbies and interests and I don’t think they’re attention seekers. Mostly I find them funny, engaging, and informative.

They did their neighbour's heads in, continually popping by unannounced for a cuppa and telling everyone their drama that way.

Probably why we all started locking our doors and insisting a message be sent first.