Andrew Ridgeley Quotes

Things have changed so much, with Facebook and Twitter. Everyone is so much more accessible these days: no British athlete has ever experienced what we are experiencing now. It's such a unique situation with the home Olympics.

Back in the day, fans wrote letters to groups - you'd get them, although it could take a while. Now, artists can go online and there's discussions about what you should and shouldn't be doing. The minute you announce that you're recording an album, thousands of people are telling you what that album should be.

In our society, social media's so big in our lives. It's all over the place.

Twitter and social media have so changed the game for filmmakers, but especially for artists. It shrinks the world and gives chance to feel like they know you. But it's a blessing and a curse. It can help build you up, but there's also such anonymity.

There are three things we need to do for a band. We need to make a great record; we need to get the record played; and we need to find an audience for the live shows.

The fact that the internet is so active; people can now speak to me indirectly.

I'm so thankful for the Internet because actors and singers and performers now have a way to connect with their fans on a very personal level which I think is quite special.

Facebook and Twitter have changed how people follow ski racing. In past Olympics, you couldn't stay in touch with the fan base that followed you during the Olympics. They thought they had to wait four years to reconnect.

Everything is so tech now; everyone is so connected that way.

I am not an 'unplug' person. I like being plugged in.

I feel like people with their camera phones and Twitter and Facebook, this kind of question like, 'How can I be present and also document my presence or document what I'm doing?' is something that's always on my mind, even when I'm not working as a filmmaker.

The Internet is like the phone. To be without it is ridiculous.

It's a whole new world out here. The online world is like a blackboard on which, when you write, the whole world can see - and I'm thrilled about this development. I want to make full use of it.

Without social networks, you're not the coolest thing on the Christmas list, and you're not getting any bite.

A weird sort of awareness set in, like, 'Wow. My standup isn't just separate from everything else I do anymore.' With Twitter and Face book, everything is universal that everything everybody says gets seen.

Creating a representation of yourself for the Internet stopped making sense when we were all on phones and connected everywhere.

I had a book of essays out in 1997 in which I talked about the increasing virtuality of our lives. I've always been afraid of that in my own life.

There's a kind of immediacy that comes with being constantly connected that I don't really relate to in my generation.

I find it amusing that I'm on the Internet now, because I've criticized it, but mainly I've criticized it on the basis of, 'What are you going to do with it?'

Our generation's grown up with the Internet, so it's an extension of our social lives; it's an extension of us. It makes perfect sense for me to use that medium.

Even with all the negativeness of the whole social media thing, I still think it's leaps and bounds more positive.

I think fans going to concerts expect more today in terms of meeting and things. It's cool - I get it because of how the Internet has made things much more personal for fans to follow with Facebook, Twitter and everything - but I also think it's kind of hindering because it takes from the music in a way.

Even one voice can be heard loudly all over the world in this day and age.

We have cellphones and smartphones and iDevices and laptops and the ability to be perpetually connected. We never have to miss anything, significant or insignificant.

I also wanted Parker to operate in the Internet age without losing being Parker. He's always operated in the world without really being with the world, and cyberspace means that the rest of us are more and more living the same way.