Hyperlink Report: INSTAfame
For this assignment, I chose to further analyze Alice Marwick’s “Instafame: Luxury Selfies in the Attention Economy.” This reading focused on the nuances and characteristics of “Instafame” (the acquiring of several thousands or even millions of followers on Instagram regardless of celebrity status) in comparison to the more heavily-studied topic of “microcelebrity.” Marwick also analyzed several different “Instafamous” people to demonstrate what kind of content they post and how they conduct themselves on the mobile application. Nowadays, it seems as if regular people can become famous for no reason. Marwick uses an Instagrammer named Carly Friesz as an example of a normal high school girl with over 30k followers. How did she acquire so many followers? That question is left entirely unanswered except for maybe the idea that she is “famous” for being “Instafamous.”
But what is the difference between microcelebrity and Instafame? Instafame is a subset of microcelebrity wherein “textual description and replies to followers are de-emphasized in favor of images, particularly selfies” (Marwick 139). Instagram also “emulate[s] the tropes and symbols of traditional celebrity culture” (Marwick 139). This means that Instagram enforces the societal “rule” that true celebrities have all of the financial benefits that come along with fame, as well as the material goods. Instafamous people tend to also show off their wealth just as the celebrities of the world do. This makes Instafame less accessible and egalitarian as other kinds of microcelebrity fame. Therefore, the hierarchy of fame is still strictly enforced. She also makes the point that microcelebrity is something people do and famous is something that you are–meaning Instafamous users engage in the strategies of microcelebrity in order to gain their large followings and maintain the image that they try so hard to create.
Instagram operates under the model of the “attention economy,” as Marwick continually puts it. The use and activity of the app is motivated by the possibility gaining followers. However, as soon as one makes it known or obvious that they are trying to gain followers, likes, and attention, the spell is broken and you will be labeled as an attention-seeker. Ways that people self-present and manipulate their Instagram feeds will determine how much attention that they get. The more “selfies” or solo shots that you post, the more likes you will get. People also constantly manipulate their images to only show the best and most luxurious parts of their lives, yet they aim to make it seem effortless so as not to come off as attention-seeking.
Another point that Marwick makes is that the culture of social media in general forces celebrities and the Instafamous to be “always on” (Marwick 140). They are forced to share many intimate details about their lives, capture every moment in a Instagram, a Story, or a post on Facebook, and are expected to interact with their followers to create a guise of intimacy. Although many of these people are “regular people” they are still held to the same social media standards as say Rihanna or Selena Gomez (both talented people who have earned their fame in the traditional way). It is because of this pressure that Instafame is now viewed as a valid currency of fame.
