Digital Influence (2): TikTok Is Personalized Hollywood?

From ancient Roman billboards promoting gladiator games to modern social media, influencer marketing has always been with us, but now, stardom is changing hands.

Welcome to Part 2 of a one-off series called Digital Influence. Usually, my newsletters are long and sprawling. This one’s a little different. Instead of a single article, this series will explore celebrities and media, new and old, across video, audio, literary and artistic media. Not to mention the King of Troglodytes himself: Elon Musk. This newsletter focuses on a comparison between TikTok stars and Hollywood celebrities. You can read Part 1 here

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The world used to wait with bated breath to see who’d take home an Oscar. But today, Hollywood's glitzy, milted red carpet has been replaced by the glow of smartphone screens. Once full of allure and admiration, the traditional celebrity has been outshined by the TikTok star. This new generation, through a medium of 60-second videos or less, are reshaping the culture before our eyes. From ancient Roman billboards promoting gladiators to modern social media, influencer marketing has always been with us. It’s just that now, celebrities appear in different shapes and sizes than before.

Influencer marketing is on track to an estimated value of $21.1 billion. In a few years, it could reach over $30 billion. Marketing agencies are increasingly collaborating with influencers, recognizing their vast reach and inflating demand for them. Influencers have become a major force in the world of online content creation. Using social media, they can spurt emotive clips and images to an audience with a size cap of four billion active users. Such outreach means influencers are perfect vessel for advertisers to use as promoters.

China has also become a major player in the world of digital influencer e-commerce. Many Chinese influencers, who are known as "wang hong" in Mandarin, have built large followings on platforms like Weibo and Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok). They use these platforms to promote and sell products, and some have even launched their own successful e-commerce businesses. Government officials make use of this vast sea of personalities to spread their ideology and influence public opinion. China's influencer economy is projected to reach 1 trillion dollars by 2025 (based on trends since 2018). There are around 10 million key opinion leaders and key opinion consumers active across China's social media ecosystem, publishing an average of nearly 40 million posts daily. Meanwhile, in the U.S, the Military is also attempting to leverage influencers for recruitment outreach.

One of the recent developments in the digital influencer space is "TikTok Houses." These collaborative spaces, where creators live and work together, amplify the platform's influence. Residences like the Hype House or the Sway House have become incubators of viral content, fostering collaborations that boost followers and engagement, further challenging traditional entertainment avenues.

The success of one TikTok star, Charli D’Amelio, can be seen with her 100 million followers. But her influence isn't confined to the digital realm. She’s also also in the limelight of mainstream media and luxury brands, like when Prada invited her to the Milan Fashion Week. She has released a book and also has a podcast, both popular among her swarm of fans. She also collaborated with Dunkin' Donuts to create her own signature drink called "The Charli." What starts off as someone speaking into their cameras from their bedrooms, turns into something like a mini media empire, because of its reach. Speaking of which, have you seen Mr. Beast bars cropping up at your local convenience store? Other noteworthy influencers began on Vine, which was a precursor to TikTok. Logan Paul, recognized for his vlogs and the podcast "Impaulsive," found himself amidst a storm of backlash following a controversial video he posted from Japan's Aokigahara forest. Undeterred, he has since transitioned into boxing, rehabilitating his public image but also generating notable revenue. His slew of controversy continues but his fame and wealth doesn’t seem to be accumulating any less slowly.

The rise of TikTok can be juxtaposed with that of Music Television (MTV). Before MTV, there was no way of exposing audiences worldwide to a music video. Similarly, TikTok has revolutionized the realm of short-form content. Lesser-known talents have found platforms in both MTV and TikTok to skyrocket to fame. The latter’s sound synchronization and music visualizer features foster a dynamic interaction between music and visuals, akin to the music videos on MTV, but in bite-sized, easily consumable formats. The platform's design, which promotes the discovery of trending music and the creation of user-generated content around popular tunes, encapsulates a modern take on the virality that MTV experienced with hit music videos.

While MTV showcased new artists through music videos and programs like "MTV Unplugged," TikTok provides a platform where anyone from their phone can become world famous. Furthermore, TikTok's collaborations with the music industry for song premieres and promotional campaigns echo MTV's partnerships with artists and record labels. Both platforms have also managed to create a cultural impact that extends beyond their primary medium, influencing fashion, politics, and societal norms.

The icons of the past evoke something deep in many of us. Take Charlie Chaplin, or the flux of Beatlemania. These stars transcended the screen and stage, reaching into the hearts of millions and millions yet to be born. They represented an era, a movement, or an emotion that resonated on a grand scale. But the platform of TikTok offers something more personal, albeit through filters and memes.

Unlike the stars of the distant past, today's influencers are just a screen tap away. Young people lose hours a day by watching these personalities. Perhaps this makes influencers more akin to radio or television stars. They offer a window into their lives, sharing personal anecdotes, daily routines, struggles, and triumphs. The raw, unscripted nature TikTok lends a semblance of authenticity and relatability. Whether it's a beauty influencer sharing skincare routines, a fitness enthusiast sharing workout regimes, or a culinary influencer sharing recipes, the narrative is often personal, practical, and resonant with everyday experiences. This also means that they have the ability to influence the discourse and news cycle as well.

The power of sensationalism in media has its pitfalls. In the early 19th century, there was a growing urban populace with a thirst for intriguing narratives. The Penny Press tapped into the allure of sensational stories. One notable example is the New York Sun. Through a series of fabricated articles, the newspaper spun a tale of life discovered on the moon. The story was replete with exotic animals and civilizations beyond earthly imagination, captivating the public's imagination, but only skyrocketing their sales. This would herald what later morphed into “yellow journalism”—a style where the allure of sensationalism often eclipses the duty towards truth.

As influencers amass followers, the pressure mounts to curate a version of life that often strays from reality. The aesthetic of perfection, a pervasive theme on TikTok, beckons influencers to portray a life meticulously edited and filtered, akin to living in what Sartre called "bad faith." The tension between authenticity and digital persona creation mirrors Sartre's exploration of self-deception and the human endeavor to escape the anxiety of absolute freedom and responsibility. When we ignore or excuse the excesses of our own camp, we come to mirror or embody the worst of our followers. If we wish to build a just world, we must hold ourselves and each other to the highest standards of conduct. Instead, algorithms optimize for views, shares and likes- none of this has to do with morality. It instead reveals something like a disordered pattern of behaviour, where people are drawn towards controversy. It’s like the lure of a shiny but poisonous berry.

When charisma meets the masses, there can arise a cult of personality. Historically, political figures like Mao Zedong or Che Guevara harnessed the power of media and propaganda to cultivate an emotional bond with the masses, morphing into larger-than-life figures. TikTok influencers, albeit in a different context, wield the simplicity of short-form videos to forge a similar emotional resonance. The platform's algorithm, favoring virality, propels influencers into the hearts and screens of millions, akin to the political icons of yore who nestled into the collective consciousness of the masses. This has been to manipulate and spread fake information at a massive scale. Furthermore, TikTok may very well be capturing useful data and sharing it, indirectly, with foreign governments, as well as selling it to advertisers.

Some TikTokers, aiming to achieve recognition, resort to extreme measures. The notorious "Skull Breaker Challenge" prank involved tricking someone into jumping and then sweeping their legs out from under them, leading to a harsh fall. Another, called the "Outlet Challenge," which entailed inserting a coin into a live electrical outlet, risking electric shock, or the "Tide Pod Challenge" which transcended onto TikTok from other platforms, involving individuals consuming laundry detergent pods. Many of these influencers have been arrested several times yet continue on their path for viewership. In the UK, a notable aspect arises from the legal protection extended to minors, which sometimes emboldens young TikTok influencers to engage in acts that harass and threaten people.

TikTok's meteoric rise has transformed bedroom creators into global influencers, reshaping cultural landscapes once dominated by Hollywood's glitterati.
The new generation of celebrities are reaching into the lives of billions, for better or for worse. While traditional icons resonated universally, today's influencers offer a more intimate connection, just a tap away, yet not without societal implications.

This story will continue in Part 3: The New Politicians: Internet Provocateurs vs the Old Guard. From there, this exciting series will continue to share insights between the new age celebrities and the old guard, covering everything from e-sports to podcasts, from the paradigm shift in adult work to the rise of political streamers and finally, onto an attack on the Trickster King of Basement Troglodytes himself: Elon Musk.

In the meantime, check out my previous newsletter on how social media influencers have reshaped marketing:

Or, if you are interested in technology and media more broadly, check out my newsletter on how AI is responsible for birthing an entirely new kind of media: