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posted by Fnord666 on Monday January 01 2018, @07:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the things-that-make-you-go-hmmm dept.

What happens when you stuff millennial online celebrities into an apartment complex? Let's peep this out:

Inside the Hollywood Home of Social Media's Stars. (Don't Be Shy.)

On any given day, something crazy is likely to be happening at 1600 Vine Street, a 550-unit apartment complex in Hollywood. A scary-looking clown might be shimmying across a narrow ledge eight floors above the sidewalk, or a young woman dangling from a balcony while a masked man wields a knife. A husky dog with pink ears, a pony, a baby monkey and other exotic animals also call it home.

But you don't need to live there to experience the high jinks, because they are available for anyone to watch on YouTube, Instagram and whatever social media platform comes next. The building at 1600 Vine functions as dormitory and studio lot for some of the internet's biggest stars. Videos shot there have been watched billions of times. The common spaces — a spacious gym, walkways lined with beige blocks and a courtyard surrounded by lush plants — are so recognizable that it's like walking onto the set of a popular TV show.

The list of current and former residents is a who's who of social media celebrities: the brothers Logan Paul and Jake Paul, Amanda Cerny, Juanpa Zurita, Lele Pons and Andrew Bachelor, known as King Bach. Some are comedians, some are models, and some are famous for being famous. But all are so-called influencers, social media speak for people with a huge digital audience.

1600 Vine offers a peek into the booming ecosystem of these social media stars. As in any caldron of attention seekers who live and work together in the same building, it's an atmosphere rife with cliquishness, jealousy, insecurity and the social hierarchy of high school, except everyone knows precisely how popular (or unpopular) you are. And it's amplified by the fact that influencers can become millionaires with a following on a par with any movie star's. Joshua Cohen, a founder of Tubefilter, a site that tracks the online video industry, described the talent at 1600 Vine as a modern-day version of the Brat Pack or the Mickey Mouse Club.

[...] Calling 1600 Vine home is still no guarantee of influencer status. It also breeds a certain kind of cliquishness and backbiting. Gregg Martin, a young actor who has landed bit roles in TV series including "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," said he felt the building's stars looked down on him. He has 44,000 Instagram followers. "That's considered laughable for most people here," he said. "People kind of look at you and just see the numbers." One influencer told him that he was following too many people on Instagram. It made him seem desperate. "I thought he was joking," he said. "But he was dead serious."


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 01 2018, @09:19PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 01 2018, @09:19PM (#616505)

    So it is the social media equivalent of pointng a camera at its own output screen and flling it with feedback.

    And just as full of meaning.