TMS Discussion: The Evolution of the Social Media Influencer

(via reallifelayla.com)

Once in a while you just can’t help but feel a good dose of human envy towards someone. When I was in middle school, it was discovering the existence of English child actress Kathryn Beaumont, whom Walt Disney hired to provide the voice and live-action modeling for his studio’s adaptations of Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). This also included all the cool events, TV appearances and photoshoots for film promotion, as well as getting educated at the Disney schoolhouse with the other child performers. A few years ago, the green hit when I learned of a young woman who grew up in the same area of SoCal as me and went into entertainment journalism, like me—but 40 years before I did. Her name is Ann Moses, and she was an editor and reporter for publications like Tiger Beat, NME, Fave and Monkee Spectacular. Meaning she got to meet and interview nearly all of my favorite classic pop and rock stars from the mid-1960s to early 1970s. More recently, I felt this mood with the relatively new viral celebrity Abigail Devoe. Although with Abigail, I’m not sure if it’s envy or jealousy so much as, “Could this have been me if I had been born a decade later?”

(via youtube.com)

For those unfamiliar with the blonde New Englander, Abigail started like how a lot of modern historians do: with writing. She had her own website [reallifelayla.com] which featured blog posts on many subjects related to classic rock. What makes Abigail different from other young people interested in the mid-20th century music scene is her old school fashion sense and unique way of blending fashion into her posts about music. So you’ll find a lot of amateur photoshoots included on her site. Sometime within the past year, she decided to switch from text to video on both YouTube and Instagram, and her popularity skyrocketed. Even though YT’s algorithm has gone downhill in recent years, I just happened to get recommended a video of Abigail’s while I was watching something on the site a couple months ago. Unlike Mina Le or ModernGurlz—which are other pop culture YT channels by young women I view once in a while—Abigail hits a lot more of my interests than the average vlogger in 2023. Her channel mainly consists of a record retrospective series called “Vinyl Monday.” At the beginning of every week she goes into the backstory and details of a famous album, usually from the 1960s-1970s, while wearing an outfit inspired by the cover art of the LP of that Monday. She also specifically chooses records from her personal vinyl collection instead of on streaming.

(via polyesterzine.com)

If I were in school now instead of 15 years ago, I would definitely be admiring how fortunate Abigail is to have thousands of followers and subscribers just from making videos and posts on her interests. Do I wish I had that kind of luck? Naturally. Do I wish I was literally in her place? That I’m not sure. I occasionally think about how different social media has changed since the internet’s ‘wild west’ days from my youth. For me, social media began with LiveJournal the week I started college because I wasn’t sure where else I was going to find girls/teens my age who were really into classic rock and old Hollywood. By the time I graduated, I was all about Tumblr. I skipped MySpace and Twitter, and Facebook never caught on for me. I did eventually join Instagram, which became my largest following, yet the experience still doesn’t resonate with me as well as Tumblr’s reblogging system.

(via laist.com)

But the thing is, ‘influencers’ like Abigail, Mina, Amelia Dimoldenberg, Alex Cooper, etc. weren’t really a thing when I was younger. During the early days of social networking, it was all about private accounts and keeping your anonymity. Choosing usernames that referenced a meme or inside joke or your favorite character rather than your legal name. The closest influencers I can think of from my generation might be public personality Alexa Chung or scene kid Cory Kennedy, who both fit the socialite spectrum by being conventionally pretty and fashionable. As well as Tavi Gevinson to a lesser extent, who was a tween fashion prodigy with her own popular blog. But even theoretically, I still don’t think I would have had it in me to be a legitimate ‘internet star.’ For instance, I’m not as instinctively stylish as any of these ladies, nor am I as witty on the spot. I can admit a couple other reasons I’m more comfortable with the written word rather than the camera too. First is because of my longstanding self-consciousness regarding the nasal tone of my voice. Second is a general fear of being doxed by someone unhinged if I use my full name and face on a giant platform.

But hey, vicariously living through a famous person never hurt anyone from a distance. So I’ll keep to my blogging, and let Gen Z and others continue with the memes and viral videos for everyone’s amusement.