I remember 18 years ago, when blogging was new and the high-level bloggers got in line:
Bill Clinton, lunching with the bloggers.
Come on, you'd fly to New York City, to eat "southern chicken" with Bill Clinton and pose for a group photo, wouldn't you? And then you'd go home and blog about how he's good on your issues and how you're totally impressed, right? And, omigosh, "He's got beautiful blue eyes."
I tried to warn them, but my message — stay independent, preserve your authentic voice — got overwhelmed by some very weird stuff. I got — as we used to say back then — swarmed. But I've survived, in my own way, all these years, on my own terms.
Good luck to Mr. Cenat, who is only 22. He was 4 when Bill Clinton was wrangling the bloggers, so social media was always a normal part of life for him. How can someone so young have any idea of the difference between real and fake and to know how precious real is? I wish him well.