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What the article seems to sidestep (as does society-at-large, it seems) isn’t so much the artifice of an experience or its documentation, but the motivations of

by settsu 8y ago

What the article seems to sidestep (as does society-at-large, it seems) isn’t so much the artifice of an experience or its documentation, but the motivations of the people involved. In other words, we seem to have arrived at a stage where vapidity is not only tolerated or accepted but encouraged, lauded, and rewarded. Thus an entire economy has been built atop of an “influencer” cargo cult (and too few seem at all concerned about it.)

samcday 8y ago
I would suggest we've been encouraging and rewarding vapidity for much longer than Instagram has been around. The problem is Instagram has sped up the feedback loop and dramatically increased the audience of such behavior. I kinda hate most centralized forms of social media we currently have. I deleted my Facebook account a year ago, my Twitter handle 6 months ago and my Instagram account 4 months ago. That said, I can't help but marvel at the spectacle of Instagram. There's lots of fun examples of the crazy impact Instagram has on society, but here's a couple of my favorites off the top of my head: The two women who tried to smuggle suitcases full of cocaine into Australia, so that she could fund their glamorous Instagram-worthy lifestyles: https://www.thecut.com/2016/08/woman-documents-vacation-on-instagram-before-cocaine-bust.html https://www.thecut.com/2016/08/woman-documents-vacation-on-i... The whole Fyre festival debacle. I have only watched the Netflix documentary, and I know that it itself is flawed - given that it was produced by the same company that got the Instagram influencers to sell the Fyre scam in the first place. But actually that meta layer of craziness just gives me yet more schadenfreude :)
ijpoijpoihpiuoh 8y ago
The celebration of beauty, fame, fashion, and influence isn't a new thing. It's as old as human history. (I wonder if nerds complaining about the vapidity of fashion has also been around since the dawn of human civilization?)
- 52-6F-62 8y ago
  In some civilizations I'm afraid many of them would have been eunuchs. At least there's one thing we can feel good about in the present.
jdietrich 8y ago
>In other words, we seem to have arrived at a stage where vapidity is not only tolerated or accepted but encouraged, lauded, and rewarded. Have you ever been to a museum or an art gallery? We've spent most of our history coveting bits of shiny metal and exotic fabrics. In 18th century Europe, the pineapple was a highly prized status symbol; people would rent one just to have it in the background of their portrait. We're a cargo-culty species of status-obsessed idiots. We always have been, and we probably always will be.
ddeokbokki 8y ago
> we seem to have arrived at a stage […] I don't think today's "influencers" are any different from yesterday's movie and TV celebs - we just now have better way to enable our vapidity. Before we'd only have our direct entourage to compare ourselves to - now we have the whole world. I think this phenomenon has always existed indigenously, similar to trends, it is now at a global scale.
xfitm3 8y ago
Conspicuous consumption is not new by any means. You sell a $10 lamp by putting it on a $100 table. Here's a quote from a 1992 research paper: "The spending patterns of the pretentious members of the baby boom generation, or yuppies as the media called them, contributed much to the materialistic image of the eighties. According to a Newsweek cover story, yuppies are defined as those people born between the years 1945-1960 earning over $40,000 in a professional or managerial position (Andler, 1984). Conspicuously consuming a variety of status symbols, yuppies sought not only to impress others, but also to express themselves as members of an elite professional class. Although yuppies comprised only 4.6 million, over half of the 76 million baby boomers were found to act like this unique group (Marketing News 1985; Rice 1989). Yuppies' well publicized consumption patterns provided a distinct template for other generations to emulate as well. Common status expenditures as defined by this group included BMW automobiles, cellular phones, Rolex watches, ]aft apartments (Andler, 1984), CD players, and designer clothing (Belk, 1986)." http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/12197/volumes/sv08/SV-08 http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/12197/volumes/sv08/SV-08
zenkat 8y ago
Netflix's documentary on the Fyre Festival makes this case well. The Instagram influencers were all that mattered -- the physical festival was hardly an afterthought.

by settsu 8y ago

samcday 8y ago

I would suggest we've been encouraging and rewarding vapidity for much longer than Instagram has been around. The problem is Instagram has sped up the feedback loop and dramatically increased the audience of such behavior. I kinda hate most centralized forms of social media we currently have. I deleted my Facebook account a year ago, my Twitter handle 6 months ago and my Instagram account 4 months ago. That said, I can't help but marvel at the spectacle of Instagram. There's lots of fun examples of the crazy impact Instagram has on society, but here's a couple of my favorites off the top of my head: The two women who tried to smuggle suitcases full of cocaine into Australia, so that she could fund their glamorous Instagram-worthy lifestyles: https://www.thecut.com/2016/08/woman-documents-vacation-on-instagram-before-cocaine-bust.html https://www.thecut.com/2016/08/woman-documents-vacation-on-i... The whole Fyre festival debacle. I have only watched the Netflix documentary, and I know that it itself is flawed - given that it was produced by the same company that got the Instagram influencers to sell the Fyre scam in the first place. But actually that meta layer of craziness just gives me yet more schadenfreude :)

ijpoijpoihpiuoh 8y ago

The celebration of beauty, fame, fashion, and influence isn't a new thing. It's as old as human history. (I wonder if nerds complaining about the vapidity of fashion has also been around since the dawn of human civilization?)

52-6F-62 8y ago
In some civilizations I'm afraid many of them would have been eunuchs. At least there's one thing we can feel good about in the present.

jdietrich 8y ago

>In other words, we seem to have arrived at a stage where vapidity is not only tolerated or accepted but encouraged, lauded, and rewarded. Have you ever been to a museum or an art gallery? We've spent most of our history coveting bits of shiny metal and exotic fabrics. In 18th century Europe, the pineapple was a highly prized status symbol; people would rent one just to have it in the background of their portrait. We're a cargo-culty species of status-obsessed idiots. We always have been, and we probably always will be.

ddeokbokki 8y ago

> we seem to have arrived at a stage […] I don't think today's "influencers" are any different from yesterday's movie and TV celebs - we just now have better way to enable our vapidity. Before we'd only have our direct entourage to compare ourselves to - now we have the whole world. I think this phenomenon has always existed indigenously, similar to trends, it is now at a global scale.

xfitm3 8y ago

Conspicuous consumption is not new by any means. You sell a $10 lamp by putting it on a $100 table. Here's a quote from a 1992 research paper: "The spending patterns of the pretentious members of the baby boom generation, or yuppies as the media called them, contributed much to the materialistic image of the eighties. According to a Newsweek cover story, yuppies are defined as those people born between the years 1945-1960 earning over $40,000 in a professional or managerial position (Andler, 1984). Conspicuously consuming a variety of status symbols, yuppies sought not only to impress others, but also to express themselves as members of an elite professional class. Although yuppies comprised only 4.6 million, over half of the 76 million baby boomers were found to act like this unique group (Marketing News 1985; Rice 1989). Yuppies' well publicized consumption patterns provided a distinct template for other generations to emulate as well. Common status expenditures as defined by this group included BMW automobiles, cellular phones, Rolex watches, ]aft apartments (Andler, 1984), CD players, and designer clothing (Belk, 1986)." http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/12197/volumes/sv08/SV-08 http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/12197/volumes/sv08/SV-08

zenkat 8y ago

Netflix's documentary on the Fyre Festival makes this case well. The Instagram influencers were all that mattered -- the physical festival was hardly an afterthought.