ABSTRACT
As the first African American president of the United States, Barack Obama was a huge celebrity and a historic figure from his first day in office. Today he is the most famous person in America, and possibly the world. He is a divisive figure, with millions of Americans supporting him but millions also detesting him. Yet despite his polarizing qualities, Obama tries to stay in touch and show that he understands the lives of everyday Americans. To those ends he holds town-hall meetings with users of Facebook, Twitter, and Zillow, and he is the first president to participate in a sustained way in social media; he uses his smartphone to keep in touch with friends and to surf the Internet. He watches popular TV shows and movies and keeps up with music, partly because his young daughters want him to. He is a big sports fan, making predictions about the NCAA basketball playoffs every year, giving him a bond with millions of other Americans, especially men. He makes the rounds of the TV talk shows, which his predecessors disdained while they were in office (though not as candidates), trading quips over the years with Jimmy Fallon, Jay Leno, David Letterman, and Jon Stewart.
