Steven Slater, Instant Celebrity

The digital revolution has an unforeseen side effect -- the ability to create an instant celebrity.

Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who ceremoniously "lost it" on Monday, has been gaining friends and followers at lightening speed.

Quite incredible, really. The water cooler chatter is second only to the tweets and Facebook likes. The man already has over 95,000 fans on Facebook. He instantly became a celebrity before he even hit the bottom of the plane's emergency slide.

Why? Partly because we now have the ability to spread the word instantaneously online. It was a mere minutes before we all knew Steven Slater.

And, he did what we'd all like to do. He flipped out. On an airplane. Because someone was being incredibly rude to him, and to the others onboard that flight.

I don't know what it is about airplanes, but it brings out the worst in people. Actually I do know what it is, we all hate to fly now and the airline employees are so undervalued that they get cranky. Can't blame them.

As a result, Steven's become an instant cult hero. I swear that there's probably an endorsement deal coming down the pike, and maybe a made-for-tv movie. Who knows.

Anyway, the point here is that social media and online news has given us all the ability to become an overnight sensation, at the click of a mouse. Although I would personally suggest a less dangerous route.

Congratulations???

What's your experience? Jim.