Youtube is a huge thing in mainstream pop culture. Many individuals have come to fame and fortune and popularity through the platform. One person in particular, going by the moniker "Mr. Beast", is the most subscribed person on Youtube, and he has influenced pop culture in a massive way with his outlandish challenge videos and his incredible generosity. He has given houses away, he has given away actual millions of dollars, and donated millions to charities and food pantries, just because he can.
Not only is he a massive influence on pop culture, but he also was inducted into the pop culture hall of fame as an entrepreneur in 2023, which cemented him as a pop culture icon. He appeals to the masses on a cultural level, giving many the chance to earn money and other prizes that they may never have had the chance to earn otherwise. Becoming a social media influencer is a harder job than people think it is, and those who do it always feel a ton of pressure to always be on point to do their best to create content for their fanbase. Mr. Beast not only films content for his channel, he also has his own show on Amazon Prime, where he holds the record for the largest cash prize ever given out on a game show.
Mr. Beast’s impact on the world has been massive, and he is a testament to the impact that an individual can make on pop culture as a whole. Being only 26 years old and in charge of this massive empire has its challenges, but he has risen to those challenges and has been steadily making content for many years, gaining 330 million subscribers. There have been quite a few remarks by fans saying “we made the right person famous”, showing that his followers feel, in some part, responsible for his success. While this is, of course, a compliment, it could also be taken in a negative way as people taking credit for the success of a famous person.
For those of you who follow social media as a whole, do you feel responsible for the success of your favorite creators just because you contribute to their popularity? Personally, I feel that I am a contributor because I watch, like, share and follow their platforms, but I don’t have a personal hand in them becoming popular, because it is their hard work and dedication to their craft that truly makes them worthy of being where they are at the end of the day.
Lauryn,
ReplyDeleteI am someone on social media who has not really looked into this creator, so I'll have to check him out. This brings to mind how even in our new media sphere, an "adjacent" culture can still emerge as well as a dominant one. 330 million is a pretty impressive following, much bigger than any of the Culture Industry that Adorno, Horkheimer, Benjamin, and Hall discuss. Does this massive reach portend a bigger capture of the culture industry? You bring up a good remark regarding new media; the public, the masses, the audience, the consumers are offered more "engagement" and direct effect on the creators' success. I appreciate this about social media, even if bots exist in that reality too. For those of us who are real humans giving real comments and follows, the real creators on the other side appreciate the support I'm sure.
This is a very interesting perspective. The rise of social media popularity is at an all-time high in my opinion. There are no doubt to sides of the coin in which the fame and popularity is attained. First and foremost, the fans do have an influence by all means. lIkes and shares equate to monetization and additional financial support to launch an influencer into the stratosphere. The other side of the coin is that the platform owners and algorithm programmers truly have the last say as well. This is the equivalent to how Nielsen Ratings for cable television in homes allowed to networks to gauge the popularity of certain programs, and then be able to make the decision to order more episodes or to cancel the program. Very nice as well. It was very informative!
ReplyDeleteThanks for introducing me to Mr. Beast. When I first started teaching this class, I felt I could reasonably familiarize myself with most of the really significant popular culture artifacts out there. Now I don't even try. Thankfully, I can just teach my students cultural theory and different lenses for examining pop culture artifacts and then they can go to town on analyzing anything that strikes their fancy.
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