Sorry to Stare 👀| internet content democracy

One goal of this newsletter is to focus on a corner of the internet and make it relevant to broader themes that exist in our cultural zeitgeist. Whether it’s entertainment, politics, or travel, I constantly scour new sites and social media, filtering through endless content with Sorry to Stare in mind. The corner of the internet I’m interested in currently is just that. Albeit a bit meta, the state of the internet and internet content has been my most recent focus. There has been a cyclical trend of individual ownership, to monopolistic ownership, and back to individuals again in the content we create and consume as internet purveyors. 

In the earlier period of the internet, there were so many disparate sources of internet truths that people craved consolidation and credibility. Enter tech giants and the newsfeed era. We trusted Facebook’s content, polished UX, and shockingly accurate ads with naivety. We realized there were privacy concerns at a massive delay. We then have made conclusions that content and capitalism are not mutually exclusive. Now, we have somewhat of an oligopoly in this regard - the giants have become so inflated that no one source has influence over another; their trust ratings plummet lower and lower as consumer awareness grows.   

Enter the next phase: social media fueled content democracy. Anyone with an opinion has become an arbiter of some form of truth (me included)! Yet, I’m interested in something beyond the singular content creator on social media – many of us. I’m more curious about the ones who gain traction and use that leverage to extend their media prowess to different channels and into a brand or media company. Platforms like Substack, TikTok, and YouTube have made this possible. These are people like Alex Cooper, Mr. Beast, Liza Koshy, etc. 

The regular person to content creator to media company pipeline is a dynamic I believe was developed and now sustained in retaliation to this oligopoly. People gravitate to these “fresh” media forms because they feel they can trust the creators leading them given they are run by people rather than a nebulous corporation. However, once they grow large enough, don’t they become more like the corporations we love to hate? Going from college senior to massive podcaster is an unusual path that is not often pursued by mainstream celebrities or CEOs. Their content feels human and relatable, even if their brands do not. Their fame and influence forms subtly, but once they’ve made it, they’ve really made it. Fusing somewhat regular individuals into brands brings us back into our internet content cycle, and creating mini-media giants once again. 

I’m curious about the juxtaposition of individual vs. brand. The differences between them are becoming more subdued as more people eagerly walk through this open door in the industry. Everyone has a podcast. Maybe even I’ll start one someday! I love the empowerment this shift has created for new voices to be heard. Yet, I’m wary that this can be sustained and that we’ll move back into a corporatized dynamic once again given some creators skyrocket far beyond most. 

Some related reeds:

How Chicken Shop Date’s Amelia Dimoldenberg Turned Teen “Delusion” Into Hollywood Domination (Vogue)

It’s this unease she has channelled into Chicken Shop Date and its Leslie Knope-meets-Simon Amstell heroine. It’s wild to think that the juggernaut of a show was invented when Dimoldenberg was only 17, as a column for her youth club magazine. The first video—a shakily filmed chat with British rapper Ghetts (about cats, largely)—got fewer than 1,000 views when it was uploaded in 2014. Did she ever think about giving up in those early days? “Maybe I’ve always been delusional, but I’ve always thought I could achieve a lot with it. I thought, from the very beginning, we could definitely get Drake, one hundred percent.” 

The TV Show That Predicted America’s Lonely, Disorienting Digital Future (NYT)

When asked how catfishing became rampant, and the concept so widely understood, Schulman, now 39 and a father of three, said that while people have been conned and scammed forever, the fast-changing online and social climate of the early 2010s produced a perfect storm — a lawless digital landscape where once-accepted expectations around romance, friendship and connection blurred, making it increasingly complex to parse authenticity from artifice

Happy 20th Anniversary, Gmail. I’m Sorry I’m Leaving You. (NYT)

The social networks made it easy for anyone we’ve ever met, and plenty of people we never met, to friend and follow us. We could communicate with them all at once without communing with them individually at all. Or so we were told. The idea that we could have so much community with so little effort was an illusion. We are digitally connected to more people than ever and terribly lonely nevertheless. Closeness requires time, and time has not fallen in cost or risen in quantity.

The usual.

What I’m reading - Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

What I’m listening to - Cowboy Carter by Beyonce

What I’m watching - Below Deck (Bravo/Peacock)