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Well located, rich furniture, wooden floors, white walls in different textures and large windows that provide great lighting. These are the characteristics of an apartment in Manhattan, in the neighborhood of SoHo. However, coverage is not for “everyone”. The floor-to-ceiling wine cellar is reserved for digital influencers.
There are 223m² built by Village Marketing, targeting the community of digital influencers on Instagram. The entire architecture of the property was planned to be a background for posts. Despite focusing on a limited target audience that is willing to rent the apartment, Village Marketing earns up to US$ 15 per month.
In an increasingly connected world, the figure of the digital influencer is seen as the new type of celebrity. However, the construction of this expensive apartment just to take pictures of an unreal daily life is worthy of reflection: are we not feeding “false idols”?
Cyberculture and its impact
In the current context of cyberculture, each person is expected to have a profile on some social network. The “way of using” these networks is to expose yourself to the maximum. Confessional writing is the most popular genre on the internet and feeds large company-sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, each with its own characteristics.
Facebook to share other people's posts that reflect your thinking, Instagram to display glamorized photos of everyday life and Twitter to talk openly about any intimate subject. In fact, the semantics of the word “intimacy” can be questioned in the proposition of this article. It does not seem possible in an age of extreme exposure to determine what is intimate.
One should not make the mistake of believing that this phenomenon was created in this decade. The current age of cyberculture, led by the internet, offers us several tools that, combined with its instantaneity, allowed us to have new forms of interaction, but based on existing desires. Who never wanted to be in touch with their best friend ignoring geographic and temporal barriers?
At the end of the 0th century, the internet promotes a true revolution, in which digital media invade everyday life and become essential to its s. Before entering the debate on the democratization of the media, it is interesting to note how the technical and precise coldness of computation, the operation of bits by 1 and XNUMX, yes and no, input and output; culminated in phenomena that affect human subjectivity.
Interpersonal relationships have changed, ways of living, working and having fun have changed. The individual's own relationship with himself has changed. This is what Heim explains in The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality (1993), when he states that the essential attributes of digital media and cyberspace (metaphysics) alter the essence of the individual (ontology). The “computer network” is materialized as the greatest impact of cyberculture on humanity.
Luís Martino, in Theory of Digital Media, defines cyberculture through Pierre Levy:
In general , the term designates the gathering of social relationships, artistic, intellectual and ethical productions of human beings that are articulated in interconnected networks of computers, that is, in cyberspace. It is a continuous flow of ideas, practices, representations, texts and actions that take place between people connected by a computer – or some similar device – to other computers.
Cyberspace is huge, limitless and dynamic; a virtual world – but not opposed to the real one, and can be interpreted as complementary to the physical one. Cyberculture is universal without totality, as it is characterized by its multiplicity, fragmentation and disorganization (LÉVY, 1996).
Today we have several applications, websites and programs, these are services arising from the democratization of communication. Before the internet, the civilian population did not have direct participation in the media, as mass communication is carried out by private vehicles. For the average citizen, appearing on TV was only possible in three situations: being in the background of the camera, being tragic news on a police program or being randomly interviewed.
We were always just mass, but with the creation of new communication channels, through the internet, reality is inverted. “There was definitely a reversal of logic between viewers and content producers. Today the public produces their stories” (Worcman, 2014, p. 151)
The construction of the “I” in the digital age
The blog is the first digital vehicle accessible to the population. Several services have been created offering a domain on the internet in an easy way. Blogs may be based on journalistic characteristics, but they are recognized for having introduced the genre of confessional writing into cyberspace. The blog vehicle became popular as an intimate daily audience.
Today blogs are no longer so popular, replaced by social networks, considered “microblogs”. Social networks have given human beings new confessional spaces, as it is the core of their functioning.
When creating a profile on Facebook, for example, the newcomer is already asked about his tastes, movies he has watched and the rating he gives, his religion, political party he likes and even sexual orientation.
Under the thought of Pierre Mercklé in the book Sociology of social networks (2004), we can highlight three specific aspects of online social networks:
- Ability to create a personal space to present yourself, where you can choose all the images and texts to be displayed.
- The possibility of accessing other people's spaces/profiles, through the properties and freedoms of each social network.
- Opportunity to interact with other network s, observing their profiles, based on common interests and affinities.
It is in this current scenario that the human being is led to expose himself more and more, but we go further, because we are exposing a character. The construction of the self is constant on the internet, since social networks offer us more and more tools to show off.
It should be clear that even without the internet we play characters and we always want them to be appreciated. It is like a facade, a concept developed by Goffman in his work The Representation of the Self in Everyday Life in 1985.
Silvana Dalmaso, in Life on Social Media, explores: “The facade corresponds to a permanent mask that we wear, representing our performance in front of others, what we want to convey”.
It is something that happens even unconsciously, we are always staging and analyzing the of the “audience” through gestures, speech and actions. When our character convinces, it is socially legitimized because it managed to keep it, so it must continue in a worthy maintenance because it is only possible to interact with that audience if it has that facade, in particular. We understand when Goffman says that “approved attributes and their relation to the facade make each man his own jailer”.
The construction of the I-character on the internet needs to respect the instantaneous and constant order of cyberculture. As Dalmaso says, with a quote from Sibilia:
In the world of social networks, mobile devices and instant communication, the event is legitimized if it is published, visible. It is the feeling that “only what is shown on a screen happens: everything that is part of the world only becomes more real or really real if it appears projected on a screen”
In the urgency of legitimizing his character, the individual is taken by ideals of neo-narcissism “in which subjects love each other through the eyes of the other, a new narcissus that is constituted by showing and showing itself to external gazes. The looks of others that show this new narcissus how irable he is” (GERMANO and NOGUEIRA, 2017). This is because it is not the created work that needs public approval, but the author. At the same time that everything needs to be recorded and published, photography is no longer precious for the memory it refers to, but for the amount of “likes” it receives.
The facade makes the digital influencer
Today we want to be the news, whether in our circle of friends or to the whole world. With the democratization of the media we created web celebrities, they can be anyone. (teamtapper.com) However, unlike analogue media celebrities, they are not soap opera or music artists who do something exceptional, they are ordinary people. Before an individual became famous for doing something, today this logic has been reversed or doesn't even exist: it is not necessary to do something to be famous. How do these people manage to have so many followers?
Being known can already make the individual special. Today we all want to be celebrities, whether in the circle of friends or across the country. The feeling of seeing your post filled with comments or replies is more satisfying than knowing that the message has been conveyed. To achieve this goal, people publish their lives with elements of spectacle and special effects.
To gain weight, consistency and even existence, it is necessary to stylize and fictionalize one's life as if it belonged to the protagonist of a film. Therefore, on a daily basis, the subjects of these early 2008st century, familiarized with the rules of the society of the spectacle, resort to the infinity of fictionalizing tools available in the market to self-construct. The goal is to decorate and recreate the self as if it were an audiovisual character. (SIBILIA, XNUMX).
Why an apartment was created just for digital influencers
Village Marketing works as an agency that connects companies to social media personalities for advertising posts. Vickie Segar, founder of Village Marketing, noticed how digital influencers had difficulties in arranging scenarios to take pictures. Some even rented hotel rooms or visited furniture stores. Understanding this demand that the digital influencer needs to “glamorize” everyday life in posts, Village Marketing came up with the idea of an apartment adapted to social networks.
“Spaces like this are gold for them, because they can have a place that feels like home to take pictures of homely moments in it,” says Segar.
The decoration of the apartment has all the planning to be photographed. Aiming at the female audience, walls, furniture and even household items are covered in shades of white, pink and gold. Giving an air of luxury, but without losing refinement.
However, this idea of a rich daily life is as fragile as the idea that Village Marketing wants to convey. In the property there is a library where the books are chosen not according to the content, but according to the harmony of the colors on the cover. The walls have pink paintings of female empowerment, such as “The future is female”. But they are there with a clear intention to serve as the object of posts, not as a demonstration of the struggle of feminism.
“We wanted them to have a place where they can feel as comfortable as taking their shoes off,” says Segar.
In these 223m², several digital influencers have already posted their photos. However, they range from 954 likes to 4.378 at most. They are not really personalities who have the bearing to afford a life of luxury, but who pay to try to sell an equivalent image and establish themselves as famous for a fanciful daily life. It is not the Maceioense personality Gabriela Sales (@ricademarre on Instagram) who is famous for her beauty and her rich life.
Who is behind the facades?
Social networks offer these tools and are always implementing more. In online interactivity it is easier to play a character. Instagram is the ultimate narcissist expression today. A social network of images, but the profiles, for the most part, are full of personal photos without any extra content. These publications generate likes and comments, even though in all the photos it is the same person in different poses. In these images it is necessary to build a facade, always smiling and feeling good about yourself.
Still on Instagram, the stories later arrived on the social network and the population quickly responded to the “urgency” of that resource. These are small videos of up to 15 seconds in a separate feed that expires in 24 hours. People started using stories more than the traditional Instagram feature. The profiles of web celebrities have dozens of daily stories, as it is the exhibition that sustains their facade.
Carlinhos Maia (@carlinhosmaiaof) is an example. Nobody knows what his occupation was before he had 10,3 million followers. His profile is a pure exposition of everyday life, broadcast as a spectacle. The “village” is where he lives and he makes his family and friends characters. His nephew Mowgli is always portrayed as a “tantrumy” child. It was necessary for the mother of the "wolf boy" to make her own Instagram profile a space to publish about her son and thus accept the shadow of her brother's fame.
Carlinhos Maia's stories are the second most viewed in the world, behind only Kim Kardashian. His posts garner over a million likes each. Carlinhos Maia does not say that he is a comedian in his biography, so we can interpret that he sees himself with someone ordinary, with no occupation outside Instagram. Even so, in September 2018, Carlinhos Maia received the title of Barão de Penedo.
Your exposure generates profit for companies
Social networks are not fully amenable to the new social configurations of cyberculture. In addition to tools, social networks are services offered by companies. Facebook and Twitter have shares for sale on the stock exchange, that is, under the influence of private interests and the market.
The great freedom in Instagram, a Facebook company, to create business profiles is not in vain. Ordinary people who create business profiles can see the statistics of visits and interactions, so they always strive to expand their reach. As you expand your reach, third-party usage of Instagram tends to increase.
Between one section of stories and another, Instagram has added ads paid by companies, the value is measured according to the reach that s/producers/consumers generate among themselves.
Monetization also occurs between individuals and Instagram. Resuming the line to be before doing to conquer fame, we see the movement of people who pay the social network so that their publications are boosted and become web celebrities. The desire for your private life to be publicly approved.
It is not surprising that Gabriela Pugliesi, one of the most famous people in Brazil on Instagram, has in her profile biography the phrase “welcome to my life” – “welcome to my life” translated into Portuguese.
REFERENCES
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WORCMAN, Karen. Digital narratives: me, us and who else? The relationship between life stories and digital museums. In: BASTOS, Maria; OSWALD, Couto; WORCMAN, Karen. DIGITAL NARRATIVES, MEMORIES AND STORAGE🇧🇷 Curitiba: CRV, 2014.
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DALMASO, Silvana. LIFE EXPOSED ON SOCIAL NETWORKS: Notes on identity, construction and representation of the self. In: National Symposium of the Brazilian Association of Researchers in Cyberculture, VII, 2013, Curitiba.
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GERMANO, Idilva; NOGUEIRA, Maria. THE DIFFUSION OF DIGITAL SOCIAL NETWORKS AND THE NEW EXPRESSIONS OF THE SELF in Journal of Psychology. Fortress, v. 7, no. 2, 2017 (July-December).
MAHESHWARI, Sapna. A PENTHOUSE MADE FOR INSTAGRAM. The New York Times. September 30, 2018. Available at: Accessed on: November 2018, 09.
