Clout Economy

How far will influences go in exchange for social media exposure?

Gift Economy

We have all been givers and receivers of gifts- Christmas, birthdays, and anniversaries. When a gift is given, there is an unspoken reciprocation to show appreciation and give back when the next occasion comes around.

In The Gift by Marcel Mauss, he presents the phenomenon of the "gift economy". This is when something of value is given to a receiver without explicit agreement of exchange; it’s a mutual understanding of reciprocation. The transaction between people is both a means of building relationship in society and preserving relationships. This bounds society to the obligation to give, receive and reciprocate. Further, this idea is understood in totality to society as series of collective exchange processes.

I argue that Social media allows and even amplifies the collective exchange process. We post pictures online to receive likes, comments and shares. In turn, we like, comment, and share when other’s posts show up on our feed. Often, this obligation to give arises out of self-interest tendencies to show our superiority. You know, like your last birthday or anniversary post. You may think the action of sharing comes off as generosity, but maybe you’re only sharing for the sake of preserving your side of the relationship and your reputation as that role.

Rather than turn a blind eye, it’s important to recognize the gift economy merging with capitalism. For most people, the exchange of pictures and likes remains free, but for influencers, the exposure equates to money behind the scenes. So, we can think about this as a perceived gift economy and call it clout economy.

Clout Chasers  

Urban Dictionary defines Clout as someone who is famous and has influence. To gain this social standing, creators are expected to produce content that viewer deem “like, comment and share” worthy. Influences gain exposure and followers grow. This cycle continues until their growing following hits a plateau. They are putting out content but not receiving their desired response from the audience. Now they are in a dilemma. If influencers income is based off a perceived gift economy, but there’s no reciprocation happening, what do they do?

The easy answer is to do something with shock value. Something scandalous that will make people talk and get them media attention and unfortunately, this often involves infamy.

Let’s talk Tana Mongeau and the Paul Brothers.

Tana Mongeau and Jake Paul are both influencers known for their tendency to chase clout. They started out as best friends. Then it turned into them joking about being in a relationship when Tana posted a YouTube video called “Muckbang In Bed with My Rebound Jake Paul”. From there, they ran with this idea, started dating, got married and broke up; all in the span of nine months.

It’s unclear if they did develop real feelings for each other over time but they did refer to their relationship as a “clout relationship”. So, they openly stated that they had the intentions performing a relationship in exchange for exposure.

They partnered together to sacrifice their relationship status for driving in exposure, attention and money. Essentially, a 'clout relationship' is a business strategy. Mauss recognizes that “morality is not solely commercial”, or at least, it shouldn’t be. The gift economy should not be just a means of upholding a reputation out of obligation. However, a clout relationship is structured off commercializing the reciprocation of a ‘moral’ relationship.  

But, wait, the clout doesn’t end here.

On February 20, 2020, Tana posted a video with Logan Paul, Jake Paul’s brother. Logan approached Tana with an idea to “get in a fake relationship, in front of the paparazzi and troll the entire internet”. Rather than stretching a relationship out across months, this was meant to only last about 48 hours. The goal put on a harmless prank to show the media that “everything they see isn’t always as what it seems”.

They carefully planned out their online gift exchange to prep the audience for their prank: Tana tweeted lyrics from her upcoming song “I know that it’s wrong, but I don’t care what’s right”, Logan favorited it and Tana posted a snap showing the corner of Logan bed. They would stage a date, give the media what they want, it would go viral and people would reciprocate the attention back to Tana and Logan.

Who’s to say if this is right or wrong, just a part of the game or going too far. There’s a lot to be concerned with here but most importantly is that this model of gaining attention relies on manipulating the public into giving back. Gift economy should be acts of generosity with only some level of self-interest. It should not be consumed by self-interest.