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Fantastic piece of writing about the "Influencer phenomenon"

eddantes

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I figure most of us here are geezers that might have a hard time accepting some of the changes the world has experienced over the past few years.

As an older GenXer, I feel the tiniest bit of "ownership" around the development of online culture (After all... it was us of the BBS and Usenet that led to /. , digg, reddit and FB, before the advent of Insta, Snap and now TikTok...). Reading this (really well written article) fills me with both dread and sympathy. Dread about what will become, when these broken kids inherit the earth; and, sympathy about the unstemming tide that is currently washing over them.

Enjoy the read, maybe you will have a different reaction.

https://harpers.org/archive/2021/06/tiktok-house-collab-house-the-anxiety-of-influencers/
 

ta240

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How does anyone look up to or trust an influencer after the Fyre festival?
 

BinkieHuckerback

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Interesting read, thanks for sharing. It's just what happens...pick any era and there'll be something that's regarded with 'dread'. Imagine watching kids joining the Hitler Youth. The effects of these movements depend on how long a view one takes of historical events - in the short term, yes, seems 'dreadful'. In the long term...we're all dead
 
OP
eddantes

eddantes

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...said these kids in thirty years' time about whatever is happening with the youth then
Yeah... maybe... I did think about the "get off my lawn" aspect of my thinking... Except the article is written by a self-identified Millenial... Some bad shit is just 'bad shit" and is not generational angst.
 
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BinkieHuckerback

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Yeah... maybe... I did think about the "get off my lawn" aspect of my thinking... Except the article is written by a self-identified Millenial... Some bad shit is just 'bad shit" and is not just generational angst.
Yes. My point is, every generation has its own 'what the fcuk is going on' moment. 'Mozart?! That's style over substance - too many notes...' Elvis Presley was considered a threat by some in his heyday. Goodness, radio and films were once regarded as being morally bankrupt...television?...and as for the printing press...
 

sergeauckland

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Yes. My point is, every generation has its own 'what the fcuk is going on' moment. 'Mozart?! That's style over substance - too many notes...' Elvis Presley was considered a threat by some in his heyday. Goodness, radio and films were once regarded as being morally bankrupt...television?...and as for the printing press...
Perhaps, but what struck me was how vacuous was their life. No substance, everything for the senses and nothing for the intellect. I accept that not everyone can design a Mars rover, or may want to, but what these kids seem to be doing has nothing of substance behind it, just being likeable and making the sort of money the Professor can only dream of. But then I have the same view of the obscene amounts of money paid to those who can kick a bag of wind round a field, or scream obscenities into a microphone to a backing beat. It hardly take years of training and practice.

Nothing worthwhile comes easy, and little that comes easy is worthwhile.

S
 

BinkieHuckerback

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Perhaps, but what struck me was how vacuous was their life. No substance, everything for the senses and nothing for the intellect. I accept that not everyone can design a Mars rover, or may want to, but what these kids seem to be doing has nothing of substance behind it, just being likeable and making the sort of money the Professor can only dream of. But then I have the same view of the obscene amounts of money paid to those who can kick a bag of wind round a field, or scream obscenities into a microphone to a backing beat. It hardly take years of training and practice.

Nothing worthwhile comes easy, and little that comes easy is worthwhile.

S
You may be right, this kind of lifestyle may not last - there are plenty of 'one hit wonders' in the music industry for example. What I'm saying is, our attitude to them is no different than attitudes towards any number of 'youth movements' (a clumsy phrase) over the years. They may or may not turn out to have a lasting cultural influence.
 

JustAnandaDourEyedDude

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I got myself vaccinated against these influenzahs with an anti-viral-video shot. My mental health insurance policy covered the cost, of course.
 

RayDunzl

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Colonel7

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...if devolution is even possible from this vacuousness it'll resemble Martin Amis' Dead Babies before too long
 

Martin

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Social Media Influencer:
1. There is no such thing as Social Media - so called social media sites exist to collect and disseminate information about their users.
2. Influencers are nothing more than vacuous camwhores exemplifying everything that is wrong with society today.
 

PierreV

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Social Media Influencer:
1. There is no such thing as Social Media - so called social media sites exist to collect and disseminate information about their users.
2. Influencers are nothing more than vacuous camwhores exemplifying everything that is wrong with society today.

And maybe what will be the norm in tomorrow's society. ;)

“The guest performer, Elvis Presley, presented such a demonstration which was in execrable taste, bordering on obscenity. The gyrations of this young man were such an assault to the senses as to repel even the most tolerant observer.”
 

Destination: Moon

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Wow! An amazingly well written piece. What can you say? My generation - Boomers - started with War protests, Free Love, Pollution awareness, and Drug culture... Fast forward to today and we're busy denying critical science, endorsing facism, rolling back freedoms of all types, while 400 million guns circulate with ever less oversight and ever increasing carnage.... So TikTok and all is warts and mind numbing stupidity seem like a logical extension of my generations abject hypocracy

All of it seems to validate Mike Judd's comedy turned documentary - Idiocracy.
Ow My Balls is going to be the number one show in 5- 10 years, not 500. Gatorade watering crops in 20
 
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Martin

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And maybe what will be the norm in tomorrow's society. ;)

“The guest performer, Elvis Presley, presented such a demonstration which was in execrable taste, bordering on obscenity. The gyrations of this young man were such an assault to the senses as to repel even the most tolerant observer.”

Equating "social media influencers" with Elvis Presley's performing is like comparing a chimpanzee throwing their excrement to Beethoven writing his 3rd Symphony.
 
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