This is the era when everyone wants to be an internet celebrity.
Does this remark accurately capture the pulse of the times, or is it exaggerated?
After watching a Netflix documentary, "American Meme", I didn't know the name at first glance.
In fact, it also has a translation called "American Internet Red Empire", which has a very good evaluation on "Rotten Tomatoes".
Formerly known as "The American Meme" in English, this "meme" refers to the ideas, behaviors or styles that are transmitted between people in the same cultural atmosphere. It is now mostly used to refer to the cultural phenomenon of rapid viral outbreaks on the Internet.
meme has three characteristics of heredity, variation and selection.
If it is Chineseized, it can basically be regarded as the meaning of "stalk" and "duanzi".
Selected samples for the film include Paris Hilton, Josh Ostrovsky, Brittany Furlan, Kirill Bichutsky, Hailey Baldwin, Amanda Cerny, Dane Cook, DJ Khaled and Emily Ratajkowski.
For Chinese netizens like me who don't "go over the wall" to play Instagram, Vine, SnapChat, Facebook, and Twitter, except Paris Hilton, they have never heard of other names, nor have they witnessed their "deeds" on social networking sites. But it doesn't matter, they are all in line with the symbol of net red, just understand the spirit.
This man is the most special, untracked... He is a model and actor, he said:
I used to have to hire PR, brokers to spread my face and reputation. With social media, everyone considers themselves an influencer. I was disgusted, didn't want to be involved, didn't want to take any more pictures, I was totally off social media, I had no footprints on it. The endgame for those internet celebrities will be tragic, they get the attention of the public, but after the end, they have no other skills, where are they going?
These sample characters also have many golden sentences.
- My real life isn't that interesting, not interesting enough to make people want to pay attention to me, so I have to act a little exaggerated...truth.
- You go to school and ask a bunch of kids "what do you want to be when you grow up" and they say "celebrity" as if being a celebrity is a job.
——I sometimes ask myself, do you really want to show milk photos? But everyone is showing milk. We are so lonely, and it takes strangers to fall in love with us in order to feel recognized.
- A lot of people accuse us of attracting attention, saying that we only do it if we want attention, and my argument is: what's the point of attracting attention?
——There are children who eat detergent on the Internet, we are probably evolved. To what extent is enough? I don't want to see children setting themselves on fire, it's an exaggeration.
- What if you wake up tomorrow and become unknown? No stalkers, nothing, can you go back and be yourself?
——I believe that natural selection will naturally eliminate the weak, and my duty is to make you fall in love with me.
- Everyone loves to imitate, everyone has the same lips and makeup.
- I love my fans as much as they love me, and I feel closer to them than to people I know. They are like my relatives. My parents thought I was crazy, they kept saying why did they get so close to your life. I'm lonely sometimes, but I'm comfortable with fans and I know they won't judge me.
—No one is normal on the web, and people on social media are extreme, right? If you are more extreme, you will be more polar, and you will become more red and more attractive.
- Privacy is dead, photos used to be private, now every photo has to be shared. I have to accept that any photo of me can be seen by the whole world, which is a great responsibility. If you post a photo that you regret a few years later, it will still be on the web, but forget about it, that's how the world is now.
- What I love most is to perform without anyone's permission, I don't have to be selected by anyone, I can do whatever I want.
——You can't be a dinosaur, you have to keep up with the times or be ahead of the times. If there is a new software like IG, SnapChat, Twitter, I want to know immediately and become an expert immediately.
——Many young people start at a very young age (Internet celebrity behavior), they don’t know that many things will haunt them later, they don’t know that what they are doing now will be forever (becoming a black history).
Recalling that in July last year, Xinhuanet produced a graphic news "The mysterious employment concept of the post-95s, do you understand it?" It caused a wave of heated discussions.
According to the graph, 48% of the "post-95s" choose not to be employed, and 54% of the "post-95s" yearn for internet anchors and want to be internet celebrities.
"What do you want to be most when you grow up?" To this question, the answer might be "workers, peasants and soldiers" 50 years ago, "scientists, engineers" 30 years ago, "astronauts, doctors" 10 years ago, and now Is "net red".
Why do young people want to be internet celebrities the most?
The Internet outlet effect has prompted hundreds of live broadcast platforms to swarm in a short period of time, spawning a large number of Internet anchors, and the Internet celebrity economy has become a phenomenon-level product in the Internet industry.
Compared with many traditional industries, being an internet celebrity seems to be much easier and simpler. People will reward you for eating and singing, and you can make a lot of money by putting on makeup and dancing.
In addition to being paid handsomely, Internet celebrities have become opinion leaders, topic generators, and sellers, which seems to give people a social status. And what a tempting picture is a grassroots counterattack.
According to the "2018 China Internet Celebrity Economic Development Research Report" released by iResearch, both the number of Internet celebrities and the size of their fans have grown significantly. As of May 2018, the total number of Chinese Internet celebrities' fans reached 588 million.
The market size and liquidity of the Internet celebrity economy have also increased. In 2016, the output value of the Internet celebrity industry reached 58 billion yuan, and some institutions predict that this figure will exceed 100 billion yuan in 2018. In 2018, the target of the box office in mainland China is only 60 billion.
With the popularity of the Internet in China for a long time, the age of the main Internet user groups is also increasing, and the age of the Internet celebrity group is also becoming more and more mature. According to statistics, post-80s Weibo internet celebrities have accounted for 54% of the total group, followed by post-90s groups, accounting for 31.8%.
That is to say, Internet celebrity is no longer a term that young people only come into contact with, but is being "popularized by all members".
The Internet celebrities in "American Internet Celebrity Empire" have very similar paths to the top, relying on sensational short videos, sexy or spoof pictures, organizing and shooting crazy parties, and so on. This is also the limitation of this film, and the diversity of sample selection is not enough.
China's folk customs and online supervision standards make it impossible for Internet celebrities to be so bold. Moreover, China has a huge population, and the needs of vertical fields are becoming more and more business opportunities, so the fields covered by Internet celebrities are more diverse. The fashion and pan-entertainment industries still dominate, but internet celebrities in the fields of knowledge science, food, fitness, and mother and baby are also emerging. The content produced by Internet celebrities is also more diverse, covering different forms such as graphics, short videos, live broadcasts, Q&A, and knowledge payment.
"When the forest is big, there are all kinds of birds" is a simple truth. Internet celebrities are oriented by being famous, and there must be some Internet celebrities who will use all means to be overly kitsch and take the vulgar route without limits in order to gain a sense of existence and snatch traffic. Unscrupulous deception, affecting the network environment and disrupting public order. From time to time, I can hear that a certain Internet celebrity was faked by CCTV comments, a certain Internet celebrity was picked up by netizens to have a black history, a certain Internet celebrity blasphemed the national anthem, the live broadcast was blocked, and the Weibo was cleared, and a certain Internet celebrity spread violent, obscene and pornographic information. was detained.
In "American Internet Celebrity Empire", Internet celebrities relied on self-hype to quickly build their own online kingdom, but they had to face the real dilemma brought by fame.
Some people began to understand after the prosperity, some said "the so-called fans don't really care about the real you at all, I hate everyone", some said "I really hate my life. I want to die, but I don't have the courage to commit suicide", some Some say "everything I do is the same shit, day in and day out", and others say "this is not real life. Just want to be a normal person and be safe at home". But some people try to strengthen their beliefs: "I just want to live at any cost."
Net red has become an objective thing, and the net red economy is also a real transaction of real money. We cannot hide our ears and steal bells, let alone let ourselves go. We must be guided by positive energy, and must be bound by law.
For Internet celebrities, if thousands of pets don't think clearly about why this good feeling comes and how to deal with it, then backlash will follow.
In a nutshell, being single depends on strength to be single, and Internet celebrities rely on skills to become popular.
View more about The American Meme reviews
