By Shelton Bumgarner

In 1968, American artist Andy Warhol famously predicted that, ``In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." I once read on the Internet, however, that prediction should be, "In the future, we'll all be famous to 15 people."

That seems to be the future we're all rushing towards and we're doing it with a grin on our face. The advent of reality TV plays into this need for everyone to be famous. A growing number of people worldwide are ``famous for being famous." Add into this media mix inventions like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and you have the makings of a future where we're all ``microcelebrities" to at least 15 people. ``Microcelebrities" are people who are really famous to an extremely small ― but often noticeable ― subset of the media universe.

We collectively seem to be rushing toward a future where we gladly hand over any sense of privacy just so 15 people follow our every move like millions of people used to follow the personal lives of Hollywood stars.

All of this really began to hit home personally with the recent release of Scott Bug's book ``Outlanders: Tales of Korea." The book is a collection of brief profiles written by various people about some of the odder expats to have called on the Land of the Morning Calm home. And, wouldn't you know it, yours truly is among those profiled.

Unlike a lot of microcelebrities, at least I'm ``famous" within my peer group as a result of using what few talents the good Lord gave me. Korea has been very good to me and I've tried to repay it by using all of my available talents for the good of the whole. Plenty of weirder ex-pats than myself exist, I just have the misfortune of being a better-known example. As a whole, I find my ex-pat peers in Korea to be amazingly creative, interesting and thought provoking, but they can also, well, cut you.

My current plight reminds me of my lone experience with TV. My senior year in college, I was interviewed by a campus TV crew about the then growing use of the Internet. Through editing and the accompanying voice over, I was portrayed as someone ``addicted" to the Internet. If you were to look at that segment today, you probably would be befuddled. I mean, don't we all check the Internet a lot these days?

The same, I fear, is what is happening in regard to microcelebrities. In the future, we'll all be microcelebrities to at least 15 people who follow our blog or our Facebook account or what we post on YouTube. We're all going to be confronted with a whole host of new problems that we never had to deal with. Better living through technology, indeed.

So what has happened to me, probably will happen to you, too, eventually. My current predicament makes me understand why Hollywood stars act the way they do. People who are ``well known" have to deal with managing their ``image" and so they don't let down their ``fans." That's the downside of everyone wanting to be famous ― we will all soon learn the advantage of that quaint notion we refer to as ``privacy."

I wish whatever it is I'm supposed to do now was automatic. While there are plenty of ex-pats in a similar situation such as myself, the ex-pat ``celebrity" whose example I wish to follow is well-known Seoul ex-pat, Venus. She seems to know how to balance her personal need for privacy with her obvious notoriety in the ex-pat community. She has it both ways ― she's talented and an ex-pat ``celebrity," but her personal life is a complete mystery to those who just ``know of her."

This situation snuck up on me and now I have to deal with it. I feel like a lot of people who just ``know of me," know way too much about my private life simply because I was so busy starting a magazine that I didn't fully realize that my social situation had changed dramatically. To date, I've found it difficult to have the self-discipline required to follow the example of Venus. I like to talk and organize when what I should do is simply be quiet and observant.

So, here I am ― a ``well-known" person in the Seoul ex-pat community. It's a weird situation, but one I have to deal with. Just like with what happened to me in college, what now seems novel may one day become common place. As we readily give away our privacy for a bit of fame, we will all have to deal with the changing nature of privacy.

Shelton Bumgarner is an American writer, DJ, singer, artist and publisher working at a language institute in Busan as an English teacher. He co-founded the English-language journal ROKon in Seoul. He can be reached at migukin@gmail.com