Sadly we seem to a very, very long way from that obvious truth. Being famous is vastly more important than knowing something through hard work when it comes to your thoughts being heard. Especially given most famous hollywood people are famous for being attractive to look at and if they have any skill at all other than having luckily failed upwards that skill is to lie, convincingly enough so you believe it even when you know it is pure fantasy, the thing becomes clear. There has been many such people opining on NFTs.
From TFA: Hence, it’s incredibly refreshing to see Reeves react so honestly - most celebrities have embraced the technology with alarming enthusiasm; beloved figures such as Snoop Dogg, William Shatner, Doja Cat, Tony Hawk, Eminem, and Grimes have all endorsed NFTs. Reese Witherspoon even tried putting a pseudo-feminist spin on the fad (because equality means women should be participating in pyramid schemes too!).
I don't know how to counter it. I strongly think that any agreement concerning the content of an interview (no questions about X, if my PR client movie star looks bad you never get another interview from anyone I represent etc.) in the media should be the opening paragraph but there are so many ways around it. Maybe if a few reputable news organisations had a charter they followed saying they will never agree to a no-go area to secure an interview and were willing to fire any employee who does it in disgrace, celebrities might have their luster reduced compared with people who should be interviewed. Also the transcript of any interview should be published in full as there has been a lot of BS from the media where the pretend to do an interview then report "impressions" from it rather than its content which have clearly been very misleading at times.
When a celebrity in this situation doesn't it draws the attention of people.
As to the why, it's probably related to social status. In the old days people paid attention and listened to the people with status (who usually became leaders), nowadays with celebrity culture it's somehow inverted, a good looking person who can act or sing gets put on stage, and they get the attention (for singing, acting, or looking good), and they gain status.
The more people taking about what "crypto" really is, the better. It's nice to have bit of balance when so many teams and other celebrities have been so quick to cash in here.
A PSA isn't news, but is everything that isn't news just noise?
I’m indifferent to what Keanu has to say. Good or bad. He’s welcome to have opinions and share them in a public forum. But the fact that an editor has elevated this opinion as newsworthy feels motivated purely by the need for engagement. It feels gossipy. These types of shallow reporting are less about informing or educating and more of a way for the readership to have an emotional response in a way that benefits the publication.
You don't need to know how to program smart contracts to have an opinion on NFTs, and the guy has been around and knows what fads and trends look like, and probably has dealt with these types of concepts from the whole Matrix culture around it.
Plus we all know NFTs survive on hype, and he knows how hype works.
Does this make him an opinion leader?
I don't think so, but he does have an opinion apparently and thinks people shouldn't take these NFTs seriously.
In general famous people opinions aren’t worth more. Though most people especially HN give far too much credence to appealing to authority with experts. Famous people is low hanging fruit
There is a multi-billion dollar celebrity endorsement industry that would absolutely disagree with you, and I suspect they've done the research to justify it.