In the past, people used to gain fame by being an actor, a sports star, a singer and so on. And even very talented people knew that they'd only get a 'big break' by achieving something really special that brought them to the public's attention. Before the rise of social media, people would not become famous just for being famous. There used to not be celebrities like Justin Bieber, who rose to fame after posting videos of himself online. But there's a downside - perhaps careers would not rise so fast, but they also would not crash and fall so spectacularly; nowadays a damaging story or photo can go viral on the internet in minutes. And in the past, the famous at least had some privacy and would not need to be available to their fans on Twitter 24/7!