i think the thing people are actually noticing when they say "fame changed you" is less that attention makes complex people more conceited or one-dimensional and more that the more your existence is a commodity to be bought and consumed, the more people who think your likeness is a piece of theirs, the fewer escape hatches you get to experience genuine vulnerability. ubiquity is terrifying. somehow i cannot imagine anything lonelier than being known by everyone.
absolutely, the old truism about what makes people be friends with each other is environments that are somewhere between public and private; the sort of place where you're comfortable letting your guard down around people you dont completely know yet. the people or animals that will become your friends are generally first people you don't know but see repeatedly
the nature of fame based around media access generally is a product of a personality that's been in these spaces a lot! the private jokes the writers make in the writers room become the jokes perfomed on prime time. the little idosyncracies and inside jokes that streamers talk about in their servers become personality nuggets that make you parasoically relatable. and if you DONT have access to this semi private space to make friends, as has been increasingly common around the world with the parasitic growth of capitalism over the past 50 years, these nuggets left by the public figures lucky enough to access something real experienced by something else are, for the mass of the lonely, the best we can get
but then you have the public platform, and no matter how small, someone coming up to you thinking they know you bc of the flanderization of yourself you put out there weekly when they're yet another scared, lonely 18-20 year old just trying to look for some measly connection in this cruel world is kinda off putting! its like, you made art and that turned into a cheerful customer service persona you put out to the world, and people end up thinking that persona is you rather than a funhouse mirror version
and when you get big enough, everyone that comes into your life has a 66% chance of being this person. you start getting defensive, careful about who you let in. bc there are people who will not get it, will not accept that your public persona is somewhat of a flanderization, and they can hurt you if you get too close
