Hi everyone,
*Me when I saw ~the slap~ on TV. The internet has been ON ONE this week. I feel like there’s enough discourse, so let’s get to everything else going on.
This week I wrote…
YouTube Is Facing An Identity Crisis As Its Creators Burn Out
YouTube culture has always been toxic. Now, many of its top creators are burning out and either pulling back or leaving the platform, and that could be a good thing. In a piece this week, I asked the question if it is possible to have a more perfect YouTube.
I wrote:
“The McBrooms were one of the kingpins of a generation of YouTubers who didn’t simply survive a litany of scandals but thrived on them. In the latter half of the 2010s, to be a prominent YouTuber was to consistently push the envelope of what you could create without getting banned, chasing the glorious high of a video that would get tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of views.
YouTube financially rewarded creators who went viral. So creators pushed themselves to do bigger stunts, pull off weirder or more outrageous pranks, and became embroiled in seemingly constant hostile feuds with one another…Recently though, things seem to be shifting. While no huge YouTuber has ever been truly canceled, it’s clear there’s change coming. Are YouTubers finally ready to grow up and evolve?”
Check it out here!
This week on the internet…
Everyone hates reels
Rebecca Jennings from Vox totally nailed the sentiment towards Reels that I have been discussing with you all on Stories for months: everyone hates them. But Instagram doesn’t care.
As she wrote:
“For creators who built big followings on Instagram by sharing beautiful or interesting images and well-crafted captions, the platform’s frequent attempts at driving video have been a longtime grievance. Not only are videos significantly more work (and more expensive) to make, many users don’t want to watch them. ‘When I’ve polled my audience on whether they prefer to see photos or videos from me, they say photos,’ says Rosey Beeme, a fashion blogger with 180,000 followers on Instagram. ‘But I’m not seeing the interactions from those people because my work is no longer being pushed to them. The videos that perform the best for me are the most boring to create.’”
This is so spot on. I have heard this from almost every influencer I’ve chatted with about Reels. It puts them in such a hard position: do they try to please Instagram, and maintain good engagement, which affects their bottom line? Or let go and try to serve their audiences? It’s a pretty bad spot to be in.
This story about a fandom of Gen Xers who love a TikTok star is…wild!
An absolutely fascinating read from Jessica Lucas for Input Magazine.
Here just a taste:
“When he shot to fame last summer, TikTok influencer William White, now 22, was treated with bemusement by the media. After all, this was a handsome young guy who’d cultivated a huge fandom of mostly Gen X women by winking, smiling, dancing, and occasionally lip-syncing to a soundtrack of ’70s and ’80s tunes…But over the last six months, the temperament and behavior of White’s audience have changed dramatically. Some members, in fact, think the community is out of control…
Insiders paint a picture of a fandom that overextends itself financially to fund White’s lifestyle, relies on White for its emotional stability, and even normalizes stalking. Now, the fandom has split into two warring factions: the ‘positive’ side, which believes White can do no wrong and threatens his critics, and the ‘troll’ side, which attacks obsessive fans. Doxxing and cyberbullying are the norm among White’s most rabid followers, and whistleblowers charge that the man at the center of it all isn’t doing anything about it so he can continue to profit.”
Internet communities are SO interesting to me, and I’ve actually begun to report a bit on them myself. They are like their own ecosystems and will turn toxic so quickly. I won’t say more about this story here, because you have to read in its entirety, it’s that good!
To braided sandal or not?
I don’t know about you guys, but I am being HAUNTED by this style of shoe this spring. I think it’s called a braided sandal?
After seeing the style on literally every influencer, I saw a ton at Nordstrom Rack and TJ Maxx recently. I tried a few on, but I have wide feet and they looked kind of absurd on me. I did a poll on my Instagram stories, and it was a 35 to 65 split on liking them versus not liking them.
I feel like every spring there is a sandal that every influencer has. Like last year, it was these guys. 2020ish was these Hermes knock offs.
What are some other ones? Let me know in the comments.
One more thing…
I recently turned on a paid subscription option for this newsletter. If you guys would like to support the work I do here and on Instagram, you can contribute via the paid subscription. If not, no hard feelings! I want this to be free for all, and truly do this for fun and chatting with you guys above all else. But, if you want, now you can!
Thanks as always for your support of my work,
Stephanie
Okay re shoes. Anyone remember the Tieks era when every single influencer was obsessed with and sponsoring Tieks content? They were like $120 or something for a pair of ballet flats. I was working in influencer marketing/PR and I'm SO glad I never bought into that awful fad.
omg...was just shopping around for sandals yesterday and bemoaned to my friends that if i saw ONE MORE braided, square-toed sandal, i was going to scream! i feel like i can't find anything i even remotely like!