Why go to college or learn a trade when you can make millions livestreaming games or posting selfies? Recent surveys show that young Americans long for nothing more than being famous on the internet, but the path to this particular brand of stardom remains elusive. Is there a special sparkle required to achieve online fame, or is it just about having the right tools? That’s what Fake Famous, a new documentary from HBO, plans to explore.
Described as a “social experiment,” Nick Bilton’s film recruits a trio of randos—actor Dominique, fashion designer Chris, and real estate assistant Wylie—and tries to turn them into online celebrities—any way possible. The result, says a synopsis, shines a light on “what’s really happening behind-the-scenes of influencer fame” as it allows its participants to “discover both the wonders and costs of this unlikely, immersive lifestyle.”
Watch the trailer below:
Fake Famous struts onto HBO Max on February 2.
17 Comments
Thanks! I hate it.
It’s very easy to look down one’s nose at influencers, to call it lazy and “not a job.” But having a friend who’s a small-time outdoor influencer and has had to stop every hundred yards on a trail to get pictures of canned wine, listened to hours of griping about The Algorithm pushing posts to the bottom, just how beholden they are to generating Content and keeping their profile up…I’ll say it’s not just a job, but the absolute worst job. I’d actually rather work retail.
Why go to college or learn a trade when you can make millions livestreaming games or posting selfies?word to the wise, get a job that will still work when you’re no longer young and attractive and have time to keep up with the latest bullshit. signed, a middling successful DJ in the early 2010s who got tired of that “lifestyle” real quick, Now I work in accounting and every industry has one of me.
I thought people looked down upon and despised “influencers” because it’s the peak of narcissism and uselessness. It’s like wanting to do a never-ending actor’s promotional tour of press junkets and social media blitzes, except without ever having a project to promote. Actors are not uncommonly self-obsessed and emotionally needy, but at least they learn lines, make a character, deliver a performance. . you know, like, act. It’s kinda narcissistic for someone to really want to be an actor, to be up there on stage, performing for tons of people, their name on the marquee, going on talk shows, but it’s really, really narcissistic to want to sorta “be an actor” without doing any acting stuff.
I don’t think it’s lazy so much as grubby and vacuous. Not sure if that’s better or worse…
This is the nature of participating in a sector where the barrier to entry is low, but the extremely thick glass ceiling is only 5 feet above the ground.
It just seems like a miserable slog. It’s not just sharing a nice pic of a walk you took, it’s monetizing every moment and analyzing it in terms of click potential. You can’t just enjoy any moment, it has to be fodder for your online mill.
I’ve got mixed feelings about the “Internet Famous” generation. On one hand, they are skipping the long line of vultures and middle-men, but on the other hand, the culture creates the illusion that anyone can be famous on the internet, which is how you end up with so many exhausting bedroom wankers posting garbage on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc.
One thing I wonder is: Will any of this stuff persist in culture? Influencer culture may influence (heh) culture as a whole but any individual morsel of it seems unlikely to be something people go back to. People still watch movies from 10, 20, 40+ years ago. Will any of this stuff still be something anyone cares about 10 years from now?And is that even the right analogy for it? Maybe influencers’ “content” isn’t akin to traditional media like movies or books or TV shows. Maybe what people who like it get out of it is a sense of connection and friendship: influencers seem much more like normal people compared to the larger-than-life (literally, on a 30-foot screen) movie stars of yesteryear.I’ve long held that the reason people get so attached to celebrities is that it’s like having a really close friend who doesn’t know you exist. You know tons about them, you have tons of experience “hanging out” with them, but they don’t know you at all. Influencers are the same in that regard, except the barrier between consumers and influencers is paper-thin compared to the barrier between (say) movie audiences and movie stars.
It’s exactly that phenomenon, and the “relationships” that develop are far more set up for potential harm (and arguably for potential good, but I’d say the balance is tilted more towards the negative outcomes simply due to how oblivious everyone involved is until something goes pear shaped) a movie star you follow through their career and publicity is still difficult to actually interact with unless you are very persistent and cross some boundaries already in place. These influencers are directly connected to their fanbase and frequently communicate directly to them, that’s often the “performance” they are popularized for. But this opens them and their audience up to danger, for every fan who figures out where they live and comes round their house, there’s also a fan who’s predated upon by one of these people, and feels beholden to this person to make themselves available in some way. There’s even less of a clearly defined boundary between them, but there’s still no relationship based in mutual understanding or communication, so expectations and the results of interaction are heavily skewed. I mean I have people I follow, and I have great affection for them, but I have to check myself and remember I don’t really know them, and they certainly don’t know me (or at least not beyond surface level interactions online) we’re not friends anymore than the postman I say high to and give a Christmas card and I are friends, or the guy at the sandwich place on the corner who knows my order who I sometimes chat with is my bud. At best we’re friendly. Now any of those relationships could evolve into a real friendship, but only if we both made an effort and desired such. The difference is the scale, sandwich guy might have a few favorite customers, or just regulars As for the permanence of content, no I don’t think so. Though Youtubers have left there mark—my younger siblings have fond memories of things I’ve never even heard of and that are long past the relevant zeitgeist of the internet though they are only 5 or 6 years old, 10 at most, the individuals who created those things quickly fade from the spotlight, even if the impact of their creation and presence lingers in subsequent “generations” of internet fame. This whole thing is like a gold rush, with boomtowns that are ghost towns less than a decade later, and though the wealth and high notes of the boom linger on in memory, all but the most famous individual details quickly fade and are replaced. We remember the gold rush, and the big happenings around it, but only persistent historians remember the individual mines, and almost no one the actual names of the miners.
it’s not that different from those creeps who post playthroughs on YouTube…there is no single good moment. Even The Family Guy has some good moments.
Nothing about the “content” is designed for permanence, just the opposite. Everything is designed to keep people coming back for more/new/latest. The ultimate goal (of the platform, not the performer) is advertising revenue. And Twitch, Youtube, etc. is fine with a tiny percent of content creators getting stupidly rich, as it inspires the others to chase the dream.
Just like a jackpot on a slot machine.
The bedroom wanking scene is over-saturated as of late.
What they’re flogging is anxiety:https://www.netflix.com/au/title/81003741(Netflix’s The American Meme)
Still better than Kinja.
Listen the world is garbage. Everyone is overworked and underpaid. If you have the foresight to know it won’t last and the spotlight will pass at some point, why wouldn’t you take the time off from having a real job and have a fake job that makes you a ton of money while not having to go to an office or report to a boss for as long as possible?
*looks at screenshot*It appears that the AV Club is now going for the shameless clickbait.