Social media influencers have become a new brand of celebrity.
While many argue that these people “are famous for doing nothing”
and are “talentless” they are wrong.
These people have talent: manipulating social media in their favor,
regardless if they are beloved or somebody people love to hate.
One thing people love about social media celebrities is the degree
of intimacy that they receive. Viewers get a slice of their lives,
as it is seemingly all out on display.
They also can interact with them through sending fan mail,
tweeting at them, joining their patreon, etc.
While big A-listers are typically more reserved and private,
social media celebrities can actually benefit from having
a unrefined, messy, “relatable” life out to the public.
According to Humphreys, social media can be
interpreted as a diary. She states that “...the diary is an account of how
one has spent his or her day”, and with the rise of vlogging,
quite literally following someone around throughout their day,
there is not much difference between a physical journal and
a YouTube video, despite the much different platforms.
Trisha Paytas,a well known YouTuber, has been active
on the site for over 10 years. Her life essentially is social media;
as she gets paid through YouTube and Patreon
and doesn’t appear to have a career outside of that.
She gained a lot of her original popularity through her “Stripper Diaries”
series, where she read out of her journals from when she was a stripper.
She shared intimate parts of her life, such as how she got into stripping.
For many this would be an overwhelming amount to share on the internet,
especially considering our culture of slut shaming, but, she continues
to share her life, however good or bad it may be.
One of her most popular videos, with over 8 million views is called “we broke up because
I’m too fat”. In it she’s crying on the floor of her living room (which is actually a deviation
from the kitchen floor she is usually crying on), explaining her side of her and fellow
YouTuber Jason Nash’s breakup.
Completely contrasting from another popular YouTube couple, Liza Koshy and David Dobrik,
who had a relatively wholesome split, Trisha and Jason had one of the nastiest public
breakups in YouTube history.
(Feel free to compare the above videos to one another).
They both wracked up views, though, so viewers don’t seem to
particularly care how people are breaking up, they only care that it’s being shared.
According to an article on The Verge, "breakups are their own genre of video on YouTube",
which rings somewhat true. But why is that? Why do people like peering into the lives of
complete strangers?
In the article Socialized Self: George Herbert Mead's Self, Mind and Society it’s stated that
“Mead saw that society was a very crucial component of the mind. He believed that
individuals carry society around with them in their minds, and this regulates how they behave.
The regulation, or habits and common responses of society, are learned through education.”
So in that case, if it is learned and conditioned that we are supposed to be private about our
relationships, especially the “bad” (breakups are not necessarily always bad) parts,
watching people deviate and publish their entire breakups, can be particularly fascinating and
enticing.
Another issue many have with social media is the concept of photo shopping.
Tana Monegau, YouTuber, has been called out (and self admitted to Face Tuning her pictures),
for this. While it is harmful to create unrealistic expectations of women's bodies, we could
argue that particularity flattering outfits and shape wear that dramatically change the body
can hold a similar amount of "fakeness" as FaceTune.
Is FaceTuning away a pimple "okay", such as putting on concealer would be?
Or is there a "line" that is crossed-- where things become "too" fake?
Tana and Trisha are both women who have no shortage of scandals, but also no shortage of
views.
There are compilation videos of Trisha caught lying, videos of her being nasty to others,
and even YouTube psychologists analyzing her relationship with her boyfriend (the one
I mentioned earlier. Hint: It’s still bad).
Tana had a convention where the security guards were fighting little girls, and people
were fainting from the sun. It’s almost hard to look away from such a train wreck.
Regardless of the intent of the people watching their videos, they're still making them,
and people are still watching. This is likely happening because their lives are seemingly messier,
and therefore way more interesting, than the average person. But, we also don’t really know
the average person as well as we think we do.
Scott Simon tweeting out his mother's final days is just as heart wrenching as it would be for him
to tell you in person, however I assure you there are people who would say he’s somehow “used”
her death to gain “something” (what, exactly?) Is grieving something that should be done alone?
How is it wrong to share your grief?
Because social media is relatively new, so people are still learning the “etiquette” of social media;
what’s “real” or “fake” and what should be considered for the public, or private.
But, this misunderstanding that we somehow “know” people, that we know what’s “fake”, can
still be done in person. No one can read your mind, and no one can tell
how you feel inside just because they’ve seen you in real life.
How many people do you know that are LGBTQ+? You’ll probably say the ones that are out,
but how are you supposed to know who’s queer
if they’re closeted? How many times have you heard the same story of the boy who was
always smiling and joking, then killed himself? Or the girl who was “naturally” thin who was
found out to have anorexia?
People are faking everything, all the time. It is learned, whether in real life or on social media,
to try to present the best version of yourself. But what if there are multiple versions of you?
Then what?
Mead suggests that we see ourselves not purely as an individual, but as a reflection of
compiled traits others have given to us. If that’s true, it explains why some people are so
quick to call social media fake. If in person, we are offered one set of traits (ex: happy,
outgoing), but on social media we’re given “new” traits (ex: depressed, anxious),
it can create discomfort.
People who are uncomfortable with being labeled opposing traits
will likely reject or disregard social media as fake to minimize dissonance,
instead of accepting that they are a complex, multidimensional individual.
I imagine, for social media stars such as Tana and Trisha,
who's generalized other is much larger than the average persons, it's easier to be "fake" and
cater to your fans, than to be "real". It's easier to photoshop and to tell exaggerated
stories about their lives; because if you don't do these things for viewers, you lose your income.
While a lot would say that social media is the cause of many problems,
I find social media itself to be neutral, it is only in how people respond that it could be
problematic. Downloading the twitter app, then doing nothing with it, does not create problems.
How can it?
An app cannot gain sentience and ruin your life. It is not social media promoting "fakeness",
but the way that it is used, and the people that are using it.
Again, people are complex, as well as hypocritical, but people are already that way.
Social media did nothing but provide a new platform.
Sources:
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