All Talk and No Trousers
The phrase came from the idea of striving for something that isn’t there. In a broad sense, it is a comment on the way in which our society is built. It touches on the way Mark Fisher describes the empty spiral of answers within capitalism:
‘The closest that most of us come to a direct experience of the centerlessness of capitalism is an encounter with the call center.’ … ‘[it] is very quickly clear to the caller –there is no-one who knows, and no-one who could do anything even if they could. Anger can only be a matter of venting; it is aggression in a vacuum,’
On a more personal level, the idea relates to the places we focus our energies. Empty popularity works the same way, the idea of popularity is so huge that it supersedes any idea of what it actually is; of course this ignores the human need for connection and friendship, but in many environments it still stands. The idea is that if it's here, there must be a reason for it - a response to some underlying need. It's an invitation to give in to natural human inquisition. And while you're busy wondering, you are the viewer, feeding the inquisition of the next person.