anything goes with emma chamberlain - there is a culture shift coming (part 1: social media)

Episode Date: May 5, 2022

culture affects all of us, every day. probably more than we think. but i think a big cultural shift is coming. so over the next three episodes, i want talk it through with you guys on how it may be changing. today’s episode is about social media…the way we use it, the meaning of “celebrity”, why i think it will all change again soon, and what this means for all of us. i’m fine with whatever happens, i’m honestly just here for the ride. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello. Okay, come eat crazy, but I've been feeling this huge cultural shift happening, or rather, I've been feeling like a massive cultural shift is about to happen. And I've been feeling like this for a few months, but I haven't been able to put into words why I feel like that. It's been like on the tip of my tongue, but I've just been feeling it happening. And I'm kind of obsessed with it. Like I'm kind of obsessed with trying to figure out what this massive cultural shift is going to be.

I feel like we're due. Do you know what I mean? I feel like everything is about to change. I just have this feeling. And you guys at home might be listening and thinking, what is she talking about? She's losing her mind. That could be true. I might be completely missing here.

Like I might be completely missing the mark here and I might be completely wrong. But over the past few months, I've been feeling like we're on the brink of a massive cultural shift and I just have not been able to ignore it. And today I was laying in bed and kind of journaling about it. Like what I think is gonna happen

and what I think is stale in our culture right now. And where I think it could go next, you know, like all of that. And I think I've finally gathered my thoughts enough to talk about it. In the next three episodes of Anything Goes, I'm going to be touching on three fundamental elements of culture. How I think that they've gone stale and how I think that they're going to shift. Today we're going to shift. Today we're going to be touching on social media. The king of culture. I think that there is a huge shift in social media happening.

I really do. I think that social media as we know it today, it's changing, like something's changing. Like, something's changing. Let's go back to the beginning, the beginning of social media. We all know this story. I'm not going to wear it out, right? But if you look back at social media, you know, the my space of it all, the Facebook of it all, the early days of Instagram, the early days of Snapchat, it was very clear that social media, when it first started, was very small community-based. People would post on Facebook so that their family members that live in another state

could see what they were up to. You would use Snapchat to snapchat your friends from school. You would post on Instagram to share with your friends from school. Everything was on a very small scale. Obviously it has just turned into the complete opposite. Very quickly I would say, less than 10 years after social media started, came a new kind of celebrity, which was a celebrity that got famous from being on the internet. I would say that this started on YouTube first.

It was the first time that there were celebrities that were not mainstream celebrities. It was the first time that people started to gain a following from their personality and from being an interesting person rather than, you know, being a singer or being an actor. People were getting famous for just being interesting. And there was no industry push, right? Because everybody was making their own content for the internet.

And so it was kind of all in the hands of those who were creating the YouTube videos. They were getting famous by their own hand. And prior to that, you really couldn't become famous unless you had an agent and you had a manager and you had a record label. Like you know what I mean? Like this was the first time that you didn't need all that to become famous.

And I would say from YouTube, it's slowly spread. And at a certain point, there were celebrities on every social media platform. And there were a lot of celebrities, if you will, that were famous only for their presence on social media. And this is not me shitting on internet celebrities that got famous kind of by accident. Honestly, I would even consider myself somebody who maybe even falls into that category.

Like I'm not an actor. I'm not a singer. I have a podcast. I make YouTube videos, you know, like, that's falling into this category. You know, it's like, I don't have a traditional talent. Someone argue that I got famous on accident, you know? And that, like, my career is rooted in nothing, right? This is a new thing.

Anyway, that first, I feel like there was still some mystery behind internet celebrities, even though they were a more honest, raw, and real kind of celebrity, there was still some mystery behind what it's really like to be famous on the internet. How much money they're making, things like that. There was still this element of mystery for a very long time with internet celebrities. And this kind of went hand in hand with mainstream celebrities, I would say, because mainstream celebrities up until very recently, which I'll touch on in the next episode of me touching on our cultural shift that I'm sensing, mainstream celebrities up until recently have always felt completely mysterious. And that's been the kind of appeal, I would say.

Obviously, you know, you might be a fan of a mainstream celebrity because of their talent, but on top of that, you also are fascinated by their lives because their lives are somewhat a mystery. I think that that was actually the same thing with the first wave of internet celebrities or influencers, if you will. I don't even know what we want to call them social media celebrities the first wave of social media celebrities Were a little bit more relatable, but they still did have this element of mystery more recently I would say that there is really no mystery at all anymore with social media

celebrities at all anymore with social media celebrities. Because it's gotten to a point where there are so many, there are so many internet celebrities at this point that it's kind of gone stale a little bit. Number one, because when there's too much of anything powerful, then the power gets diluted, right? It's like, you can think of it like, well, this is a crazy metaphor. But you can think of it like the government, the more government officials that have a say in what laws get passed, the less power each individual

member of the government has. You see what I mean? And it's the same thing I would argue with the impact of Internet celebrities, the more Internet celebrities there are, the less impact celebrities. The more internet celebrities there are, the less impact or excitement that there can be around one individual one, because now there's just so many. So I feel like the sort of illusion of internet celebrities being these special, almost god-like type of people is completely gone, at least in my opinion. I'm not saying that there aren't some, you know, Internet celebrities out there that have maintained that element of mystery and of wow factor.

I'm not saying that, but I would say that it's pretty rare now. Most people look at internet celebrities, I would assume, as like normal human beings. Whereas in the past, that was not the case. You would look at internet celebrities as like, people who are on a pedestal. I think people used to put Internet celebrities on a pedestal. And now, because there are so many, it's kind of lost, it's spark, it's kind of a little bit stale. It's really interesting how a large chunk of Internet celebrities now have no real foundation or purpose for being famous. Besides the fact that they kind of got famous on accident and then now they're going to all these big and fancy events.

And people are just kind of checking in because it's interesting to see like what people are wearing, what events they're going to. So now you're actually following somebody who got famous on kind of accident just to see what kind of famous person activities that they're doing. The nature of that is so bizarre and it's rooted in like nothing of real value. And I think that that's a problem because I think that, or it's not a problem, but I think that that's not going to work forever. I think we're in a very unique spot right now that may never happen again,

where there are more celebrities that are famous, just for being famous, than there are celebrities who actually got famous from a talent that they have. We're in a really unique spot right now where you can kind of be famous for nothing, and I don't think that that's going to stand the test of time because one of two things are going to happen. Either number one, we're going to end up in a world where

80% of people are famous in some way or another and fame just becomes almost a universal experience in one way or another. By that, I mean that because it's so easy to access so many different types of people, we might end up following thousands of different people, right? Like some people who we admire, they're close, some people who we admire. They're music, some people who we just think that they're funny. Some people who maybe they're a chef and they post recipes because we have the ability to follow so many different types of people. That means that so many different types of people have the ability to gain a lot of followers. And I think that at a certain point,

almost everybody's going to be famous in a way. Like if you want to be, right? Almost anybody is going to be able to be famous, which is going to make fame dilute so much to a point that it's not even a real thing anymore. I'll give you an example scenario of something I'm thinking of in my head. Imagine we get to a point that it becomes normal to have like 10,000 plus followers on Instagram or on TikTok or on YouTube because there are so many consumers of content nowadays that it's becoming easier to gain, say, 10,000 followers. That means now that 10,000 people know you.

And even though 10,000 followers isn't as much as like the Kardashians, it's still a decent amount of people. And the likelihood of you meeting somebody on the street who is following you or is subscribed to you, starts to go up. So I almost imagine a world where everybody kind of knows everybody. You know what I'm saying?

Like the likelihood of you meeting somebody that you follow on the internet is going to start to go up. And you might be a fan of them. And it's all, it, it, it, it. Did you know what I'm saying? Like this is driving me nuts, but I feel like at a certain point, everybody's gonna be a celebrity a little bit. And the whole thing is just gonna shift completely.

That's kind of one way that I feel social media is shifting. The social media influencer, the social media celebrity, is becoming so common that I feel like at some point most people are going to be in one way or another, a social media influencer of some sort. The second option is that it's going to go the complete other direction. And the meaning of celebrity is going to change, and it will become extremely exclusive. It'll become a situation where if you have a million followers, you still aren't considered famous or a celebrity.

Until you reach 100 million followers, you're not a celebrity. Basically, the public view of what a celebrity is, what famous is, will change from being like, over 10,000 followers to now being like, over a hundred million followers. So, the perception of what a celebrity is will become stricter. It'll be like, no, you have to be bringing something to the table. You know, you have to be an actor. You have to be a musician. You have to be a CEO. You need to be doing something. You can't just be famous for being famous anymore. There

needs to be some meat to what you're doing that will inspire society to think that you're a celebrity. So I picture it going one of two ways. Either everybody's gonna be a celebrity or the group of celebrities will be a lot smaller and more refined on social media. Like the internet celebrity group will shrink. I don't know.

I just feel like something's gonna happen with it. I personally don't care. Even though I'm kind of a part of all this, in a sense, I don't care. Like, listen, I'm so grateful to be a part of this absolutely bizarre revolution that we're going through right now of like internet celebrity. It's like a new thing.

Like I'm beyond happy and honored to be a part of it, but also I'm not emotionally attached to it. However, it evolves, I couldn't care less. I'm here for the ride. If at a certain point, people who became famous on the internet and completely all falling off and everybody stops caring and it just loses its credibility and it just becomes nothing and it disappears into the abyss at a certain point.

So be it. If it becomes that everybody becomes an internet celebrity at a certain point to a certain level, so be it. I don't care. But I'm just fascinated by how it's evolving. But moving away a little bit from the social media fame of it all, I feel like the impact of social media in general has been going down because it feels like everything on social media has been done. It feels like every Instagram photo has been taken. It feels like every YouTube video has been recorded. It feels like every TikTok has been done. It feels like everything has been done. Everything

feels stale. How many times can everybody film a vlog of what they're doing every day before it's just stale? How many times can somebody film a morning routine on YouTube before it gets stale? How many times can people take a photo in their outfit in front of a blank white wall on Instagram before it gets stale? How many times can somebody post an aesthetic photo of their nightstand with books in a coffee on it before it gets stale. How many times can somebody post an aesthetic photo of their nightstand with books in a coffee on a before it gets

stale? How many times can you post a photo of you and Bora Bora before it gets stale? How many times can you make a tick-tock about weird random celebrity drama before it gets stale? How many times can we repeat the same shit on these platforms before it gets stale? Something has got to change. We're all bored of it. I'm sorry, I'm noticing it. I feel like everyone's bored.

I'm bored of YouTube, the stereotypical kind of content that gets posted on YouTube, the sort of everyday vlog of it all, the sort of getting ready with me, video of it all, the sort of everyday vlog of it all, the sort of getting ready with me, video of it all, the sort of like, these are what, this is sort of hall of it all, what I've been purchasing recently of it all, the mainstream content on these platforms,

I can't get myself to put on a cute outfit just for an Instagram photo anymore. It's so stale. Listen, there was a time in my life where I would literally once a week like pick out a fun outfit and go out with my friends and take Instagram photos. I can't do that anymore.

It's so over. You know what I mean? It's like it's done. I feel. I deleted the whole app of TikTok, so I can't really discuss what's going on on TikTok and how that's evolving because I'm not on there.

But when it comes to Instagram and YouTube and you know, just overall the cultural feeling of social media and what is most poppin on there I just feel like everything is so stale and that's why recently I've taken a huge step back. I mean for those of you who follow me on these platforms,

like YouTube and like Instagram and stuff, I don't know what to do on these platforms anymore because everything's already been done so many times. And so for me, I've been like, well, I don't really have anything to post that I haven't already posted before. And so because of that, I just haven't been posting on these platforms

because I've decided that I would haven't been posting on these platforms because I've decided that I would rather just take a step back and just live my life. And if I feel the desire to post something I will, but my desire has lessened a lot because I feel like everything has been posted millions of times before by not only myself, but also everyone else. And everything feels stale. But I feel like I'm not the only one. Because I feel like a lot of people that I know on a personal level, but also people that

I used to follow are sort of hitting a wall right now where the sort of formula that everybody's been following where social media is about posting your outfits and the most aesthetic moments of your day. And if you're feeling a little quirky posting the outtakes of your life, the kind of funny moments of your life and sharing your daily routines and sharing like this blueprint that we've been following for so long where we're all posting about our lives is becoming so stale because guess what? Now we all know what the what everyone's doing. So it's all predictable. It's all boring now. At first, when

this new wave of social media started where everybody, internet celebrities, and just people with a normal following count alike started posting about their everyday life. And it was interesting because it was something that was completely new, completely uncharted territory. Nobody had ever had access to people's everyday life before. Now suddenly, we know what our favorite YouTuber is doing and we also know what the kid who sits next to us in math class is doing.

It was interesting because it was so new. We had never had access to that information before. But now we've had access to what everybody is doing at every hour of the day for so many years now that it's literally so fucking boring, right? Am I like losing my marbles? I mean, literally, okay, we're all friends here, in my opinion.

Obviously, do I know you, no, but we're all friends here, right? Okay, whatever. You can, you can tweet at me right now and be like, Emma, you're losing your marbles. Like, you're crazy. Like, you're overthinking it. You're overanalyzing it. That could be true because I'm so closely involved with this element of culture. Because I, it's, in a sense, it's like my job, right? I mean, I don't like looking at it as my job, but it is, is participating in this culture to a certain extent, you know?

And so maybe that's why I'm so analytical of it. But that leads me to my next point. Everything on social media is stale, so what's going to happen next? It feels like everything's already been done. We've played the game of pretending that we all have perfect lives. That kind of came and went because very quickly everybody realized how easy it is to fake a perfect life. There's face tune, there's Photoshop,

there's all these different things, there's exaggeration just simply exaggerating. Like that didn't last very long. I mean, it's still kind of going on to this day, but people aren't as infatuated by it as they once were. And then it was all about people being funny and honest about their real lives on social media. But then even that found a way to become kind of fake

in a way because then people were faking these real moments. Like they were faking a relatable life in a way. a relatable life in a way. And then that kind of dissipated into thin air. And now it's just kind of a mixture of everything and everything just feels stale. I don't really know what's next with social media because I feel like we're experiencing this worldwide burnout where everybody's sick of posting their everyday lives on social media, whether they're pretending that they have a fully perfect life

or they're pretending that they have a totally relatable life or they're just posting the honest real moments of their everyday life, no they're just posting the honest real moments of their everyday life. No matter what category you fall into as a normal human being who just posts on social media for fun, or as a sort of social media influencer, no matter who you are, I feel like there's this worldwide burnout where people are just sick of posting the same shit over and over again on social media because it's just all been done so many times and it's so boring and I feel like

everyone's just kind of bored of it. I really think that the only thing that has stood the test of time is content in general that's creative in some way. Maybe that's music, maybe that's art, maybe that's clothing, maybe that's photography. Things like that, stand the test of time. That will never be boring, but other than that, I just don't know what's gonna happen.

I'm like literally being honest. I feel like at a certain point, people are just gonna get bored of the internet. I'm not kidding. Yes, we're all addicted to it. Yes, we all participate in it on a daily, daily basis, but I feel this shift where I feel like everyone's getting bored of it. Like I feel like it's just getting really boring.

And maybe that's just my perspective. Maybe I'm too up close and personal with everything. Maybe you guys still find everything interesting that I'm claiming is boring. I don't know. I just don't know what's going to happen. Are a bunch of people just going to be like, you know what? I'm bored. I'm just going to delete my account. Is that going to happen? Or are people going to, at some point, redefine what it means to post your everyday life on social media? Is that going to evolve in a way that makes it more interesting? Maybe, do I know what that way is going to be? No. But I just feel like we can't keep posting the same stuff every day for the rest of our lives. In an ideal world, I see this shift as a very positive thing.

In my ideal world, at a certain point, the internet will get to a place where it's no bullshit. Nobody can fake their lives anymore on the internet. Everybody will see right through it. The internet celebrities will kind of lose their... maybe a lure in a way and the internet celebrity culture will kind of cool off a little bit. I just think you'd be so cool and amazing if everyone kind of got bored of social media in a way and in a way and Kind of stop caring about it as much and and

Kind of re entered into the real world again and then Would use social media as a place for inspiration and for community building again instead of the internet being this superficial boring building again. Instead of the internet being this superficial, boring kind of place, what if social media became a place that was used with more intention? When people post, they post with intention. Like, I just painted this painting. I'm gonna share it on my Instagram. Instead of being like, I just ate a bagel. I'm gonna post a picture of this bagel. I just ordered a coffee.

I'm gonna post a picture of the coffee. I just like, you see the difference between those intentions? Posting every single moment of your everyday life, the intention is like, I just wanna, you know, share with everybody what I'm doing at every given moment of your everyday life. The intention is like, I just want to, you know, share with everybody what I'm doing at every given moment of the day because I want to show people that like, I do stuff every day. Instead of that being the intention, it's like, you know what? I can disappear from social media for a week and post a week later when

I have something to show that's meaningful. You know, it would be cool to see people start using social media and more meaningful and impactful ways rather than just everybody dumping everything on the internet all day every day. I Would love to see the shift happen in social media being used more intentionally and people returning back to Living in the moment again. Is it possible? That I don't know. But I think that the loss of the the the allure of social media, I feel like it's kind of

dissipating and why that is or what will come from it, I'm not so sure. To be, you know, these are my speculations. These are my kind of, you know, hypotheses, says, hypothesis. But we'll see. Anyway, that's all I have for today. Please let me know if you think I'm being crazy or if you've been feeling the same sort of shift happening. Like if you've been feeling this staleness

with everything in regards to social media and its role in culture, the staleness in the type of post, but also the staleness in the internet celebrity sort of world of it all. Like, tell me what you think. And obviously, I know this is kind of an awkward conversation for me to be having considering, I guess I am considered, sorry, I just got a text that's so rude. Considering that I am considered an internet celebrity in a way. But listen, we can be brutally honest.

If you can say, Emma, your stale is fuck. Okay, I, that's fine. Like, I find this whole thing so fascinating. The fact that we're in the midst of this sort of technology revolution. I know it's so boring to talk about, but it's not. Okay, it's so boring to talk about But it's not Okay, it's sometimes boring to talk about like whenever somebody's like I want to talk about social media I'm like actually shut the fuck up, but then again, I want to talk about it. So I am being a hypocrite But I feel like this is kind of an interesting shift in the world of social media

It's not just like social media makes me feel like bad. I've talked about that enough. What's the future of social media? What's happening next? What's going to happen next? What's the next wave of it? Because it's obvious that the way that it's going now is not going to last. Like things are going to need to change

or everything's going to go away. And it's just going to become boring and everybody's going to delete their their their Instagrams and delete their YouTube accounts and well YouTube's different because YouTube has so many different types of content. I'm referring to like content created by individuals, by YouTubers, you know, by vloggers, stuff like that. Anyway, I'm done. Uh, I'm done. In the next episode of this discussion on the cultural shift that I'm feeling, we're going to be talking about the way that I feel like the mainstream celebrity is shifting.

And we talked about that a little bit today, but I'm going to touch on that more in the next episode. And then on the episode after that, I'm going to touch on how I feel like the trend cycle is changing. The way that trend cycles in our culture is changing. And then that'll be it. We're doing a little three-part series. I hope that you guys enjoy it.

Feel free to tell me your thoughts on all the things I've discussed in the next three episodes on Twitter, at AG Podcasts, or on Instagram, at anything goes. And you can subscribe to anything goes on any platform that you stream podcasts. And you can leave a little review as well. And you can check out my coffee company, Chamberlain coffee. I'm drinking a cold brew right now, specifically using the Chamberlain coffee, vanilla blend. It's like vanilla has like an essence of vanilla.

That's absolutely delicious. Anyway, that's all I got for today Thank you guys for listening. Thank you guys for hanging out. I hope you guys have an amazing week and we'll talk next week. Love you