One of my favorite Youtubers is Bretman Rock. He specializes on making makeup tutorials, trying the latest media challenges, and vlogging his everyday life. He had started by making low quality videos in his home to now having millions of followers, collaborating with makeup companies, and being feature in Vogue magazine. His journey into fame did not solely rely on his Youtube content. Yes, his content got him recognized, but just as the podcast discussed, I’m sure he had been making content for a while for free until he started to profit off his videos. Even then, what got him the real money were the collaborations, sponsorships, and advertising he participated in.

It is very interesting how the amount of work put into a creative hobby only is reward if it is recognized by bigger companies. If I started to make my own videos, I would be mostly overlooked until a company like Vice or Buzzfeed wanted to work with me. Only then would it look like that a made a name for myself.

This podcast made me aware of the behind the scenes of internet famous brands. This continues to remind me of how people will work for no reward, but work for acceptance and support of other people. They dream of being “Youtubers” and being viewed by other people to determine their importance. I put Youtuber in quotation there because the one of podcast speakers mentioned that Youtubing isn’t the career, but being a videographer is. I really liked this point because I find myself saying I want to work for Complex Magazine, yet when asked “doing what?,” I hesitate to answer. I catch myself depending on the name of the company to to carry my career significance. In reality, I want to be a graphic designer, but associating myself with a bigger company makes me feel more important.

Before listening to this podcast, I won’t lie, I was one of the people that would shame public selfie takers. I thought they were not tuned into reality. I thought they were so obsessed with themselves. I thought it was such a foolish act to stop and do when there’s so many other things one could be doing with their time. Although I am a selfie taker, I would never think to do it in public. If someone ever caught me looking at myself through my front camera, I’d immediately shy away and pretend nothing happened.

This podcast really opened my eyes on what a selfie could really mean and represent. The point that a selfie provides women with something to control is powerful. In a world where we are often overlooked and doubted, I can see how a selfie can allow us to create our own image of ourselves and let us present ourselves the way we want to be seen. I thought it was interesting when the speakers of the podcast discussed that a selfie can help find yourself in real time. I never thought of a selfie as a way to explore one’s self. The details that go into a selfie, now that I think of it, determine how I want to present myself in that moment.

As I reflect on my previous selfies, I noticed that a lot of them are very serious. They are very staged and perfected. I take a lot of them at once if I’m feeling myself. When I feel good about myself and take all these selfies, I feel good and can not wait to share it with others. Although, on any other given day I am the cheesiest person ever! The fact I can stage these pictures myself and be serious shows another side of me that a lot of other don’t get to see. Therefore, I agree that selfies are an explorative activity.

I was introduced to the Slender Man through Twitter. I never really got into the whole story of the character, but I would always seen the memes and creepy photos being shared. It amazes me how this character of the Slender Man is completely made up by fans. It all started with Victor Surge and others contributed to this character’s existence. The reading mentioned that there contributors were not getting any reward for participating in the development of these stories and content. Although, they were getting compliments from other users, well at least the “good” and well thought out photoshopped images and fiction content were. The power of bragging rights and affirmation from others goes a very long way. That in itself is the reward. To be recognized and made feel good from doing something. This is exactly how Instagram works. Unless you are advertising for a company or have millions of followers, you usually do not get paid or any reward for posting a picture. Yet, people are so inclined to update their feeds as much as possible, why? Because people comment on posts, compliment, interact, react and that stimulates the brain, whether good or bad, but these interacton become addiciting since we never want to feel alone.

I always thought people’s participation in such things like Something Awful’s forum posts were weird. Especially if it is not a mainstream site. How does someone even stumble upon a site like Something Awful? I never heard of this internet surface until today’s reading. I wonder why something like Instagram and certain websites are more popular than others. What exactly is it that makes a person want put themselves in a position of judgement by others? Is it the possibility that, just maybe, someone will accept them? that someone will like them? that someone will compliment them?

The thing that stuck out to me the most after finishing this reading is the fact that reality T.V. was referred to being the “visual hamburger helper.” This analogy really puts in perspective just how reality T.V. has a bad reputation and is often put down. I never understood why these shows and their audiences were judged so hard because, after all, they were very entertaining and were on mainstream channels such as VH1 and MTV. It’s pretty common to have access to these reality T.V. shows. This normality of reality T.V. made me accustomed to watching it and I never really saw it as a bad thing. From a Hollywood perspective, reality T.V. seems like the end all be all. Reality T.V. and most shows are scripted, but the difference is that reality T.V. is that reality T.V. scribes are the lowest ranking and do not receive union pay scale compensation. When I discovered this, I began to understand why reality T.V. had such a bad reputation and connotation.

It all has to do with money!(Like most things.) The participants are not usually paid well and the production team is not paid well. Not being paid well gives others the impression of the lack of skill and lack of professionalism. The audiences who watch these shows are seen in the same light. My thought as to the main audiences of these shows are people who are also not paid well. The people that watch these shows might not have access to programming that you have to pay a lot for and they watch whatever they have access to. This reminds me of how we ranked different celebrities and project’s cultural impact in class. The more complicated and exclusive items were, the more they were seen as profound and impactful. Since reality T.V. shows are among the common people, it does not really make it special.

This week’s readings gave me a better understanding of people’s obsession with fame and the mindset behind the entertainment industry. First of all, I have watched Honey Boo Boo before and I always thought she was this outlandish character. Sometimes, I would look at her and it made me feel better about myself because I thought she was so crazy. When I read the article, it made sense to me that that’s how the entertainment industry makes money, by creating these shows that allow others to place themselves on a higher pedestal so that they can feel better about themselves. It is entertaining and stimulates joy because we realize we are as bad as the characters on these shows. We judge them and criticize them. This ridicule we give out keeps us hooked because these shows allow us to get rid of frustration, distract us, and make us feel like we are better than others. This hierarchy of popularity, class, and access keep the entertainment industry alive. Without someone else to judge or ridicule, then we will focus too much on our own lives and struggles. From this, many things can happen such as a depressed population or a population that is uneasy about their status and ready to rebel.

The other reading www very interesting because of the statistics they provided. When I read that this generation is more narcissistic than previous generations it made sense to me. Social media is a big reason as to why this is. The idea of being able to create this persona of yourself to the pubic and being able to alter yourself to be perfect gives people a reason to be obsessed with themselves and their reputation. My mom is always saying how teenagers are so anti social, cocky, and into themselves. She tells me that she was not worried about her self image at my age. She was more worried about making money and surviving. This made me realize that some people do not have the privilege of being worried about what next selfie they’re going to post, but instead they’re worried about paying the rent. It is a privilege to focus on self-esteem and self image. I think this privilege can be abused in which then this privilege now turns into an unhealthy over used narcissistic trait. Too much of anything is always bad.

This was my favorite reading so far and I think that is because it is very relatable to the way that I grew up. The idea that poor people’s splurge on brand names is their way of survival is very interesting and I agree with the author’s meditation on the idea. I think that when you look good, then you feel good, and then you will do good. My mother always made sure I looked presentable and kept up with because she knew how reputation worked and what would benefit me because, although people always say they don’t judge others, people have a natural tendency to do so anyways. The develop biases based off your appearance and this can be a make or break for you. If dropping a check on a gucci belt will get you a great paying job in the long run, then it’s worth it.

This reading overall reminded me of a certain fashion designer: Dapper Dan. He took name brand luxury franchises such as Louis Vuitton and reused their brands in his street wear collections. He made knock off garments so that his community could be apart of these name brands that usually excluded the black community. Eventually he got in trouble for it, but he made this sense of untouchable exclusivity available to the streets of Harlem. He knew the power of appearance and used it to create a whole new identity for his peers.

In an article I read (I can’t seem to find it again, but it was from the New York Times), they talked about Dapper Dans legacy and why it was so important for “poor communities” to look good. They mentioned something along the lines of poor people only having control of the way you they look since they have limited access to educaton, financial stability, and social priveldge. Appearence being the only control a person has makes it THAT much more important. I think with this control and necessity to look good in orer to survive, a fashion culture unlike no other has stemmed from it.

My archetype for my celebrity persona was along the lines of A Creator Cutie Who is Funny (The Creator, Love Goddess, and Trickster) who had a status of everydayness. My impersonating shots had a lot to do with me creating in the moment or in the presence of creative objects. My detailed pictures of my life had focused on the scenery, the vibe of the photo, and the pose that I made. I wanted to come across as a person who does not take themselves too serious. My personal photo was the picture from a movie depicting the character’s enlarged heart. I choose this to describe to my fans how I was feeling and what was happening in my life at the moment. I also referred to it as my favorite movie so I gave my audience a sense of my likes and dislikes. The picture of my bottom teeth are an advertisement for dental floss. I am encouraging my fans to floss and the fan like activity would be for them to mimic my pose and show their newly flossed teeth to everyone else. The wildcard photo is the pair of pants that I made. I wanted to show some product and depict it in a visually pleasing way.

This project was interesting because I noticed how important it is to stage yourself as a celebrity. I was thinking of good captions and kept editing them so that they could fit the photo’s purpose. At one point I had 13 pins and had to nail them down to 9 pins. This was hard because I had to be very intentional in what I was showing to the public in order to keep on brand.

Overall, I think this was successful. I wanted to do more of a low-fi quality to push against the high quality photos celebrities usually put out. While doing this, I found myself emphasizing my personality. I think I choose an archetype that was most realistic for me and it was easy to create because I related to it. The thing that was hard and different is that broadcasting of it. I wouldn’t really share a funny photo to Instagram because I usually put the best pictures I have on there. As this persona though, it’s like I’m going out of my way to not be perfect.

For this project, my group created a portrait of Zendaya and went around Lafayette Dorm and Washington Square Park to show this portrait to other Zendaya fans and have them leave a comment! We plan to somehow mail this to Zendaya.

After reading chapter 2 of Celebrity Culture and the American Dream, by Karen Sternheimer, I thought about how big of an influence media and technology have on the population. It amazes me how the invention of the kinescope, the history of the time period with poverty, unemployment, and unskilled workers, and the desire for upward mobility all happened around the same time. This overlap morphed a certain culture and audience that would sit infront of the big screen. One quote from the reading that I found very interesting highlighted the foreshadowing success of the tv and film industry: “The industry would have a significant stake in maintaining this illusion as its corporate power grew – selling the dream to an eager public would be a very profitable enterprise for years to come” (31 Sternheimer). In my opinion this quote sums up how the movie industry works overall. The word “illusion” is really compelling to me because people watch films to be entertained and escape from their reality, but when they watch these films, they are recieving information and being affected by that information. When people were exposed to the idea of the American Dream and upward mobility in films, it gave them hope and influenced the things they bought and how they lived. This still happens today. A new movie can influence people to dress differently or speak differently. The industry could even follow along on a trend in order to strictly make profit. For example, if there was a recent study that said the most common favorite animal for kids are cats then they would be more inclined to make a movie about cats in order to draw in crowds. They give the audience what they want. The way I understand the industry is that they simply care about the profit and not necessarily the quality or content. They seem to often have big name stars in films so that more people would be in clined to watch them even if the big named stars aren’t that good at acting. Then again, it helps the econmy a lot. I feel like the concept of brand loyalty is also true in the movie industry. All of the marvel superhero movies seem to have a crowd that always attends. In all, I think that film is very powerful and can be used for good reasons, but also can be used as a weapon.