re: the tiktok house that’s opening in dublin, let’s step past the ‘lol look at these saps’ takes - content houses/farms aren’t that new. what’s compelling is the american whitewashing & cultural homogeneity, as is the voluntary panopticon of it. this is fucking fascinating.

these are a clutch of young, thin, visually very similar teenagers who are producing content that is going to be very similar to the content by young, thin teenagers in these palaces in america. they are just emulating the post-jake-paul industrial complex.

i love tiktok because of the frog videos and cooking stuff the algorithm feeds me, but of course i’m aware of the big content farm houses. they are farms, by the way, in how they roll out imagery and branded items. they aren’t fostering talent. they’re farming videos & merch.

jesus i have way too many thoughts to do a nuanced twitter thread, but trust: this is an interesting cultural moment. assigning it worth or ‘clout’ is complicated. i’ll keep an eye on it and figure out real opinions but what i’m trying to say is basically

also - a bunch of adults on twitter aren’t their target market. the demographic of most of these farms is children. the ppl who make the videos are dancing for children. this is fine. you’re obviously not going to buy their €40 hoodies with the word GOAT on them, so scroll on

this is kind of why it’s worthy of analysis really. these hot houses of attention - fade street, big brother etc - produce a particular kind of celebrity to those who ‘survive’ them. i’m sorry i’ll stop now i’m just like

ok ok one last take. their incentive to get people to follow them on ig is that they’re paying someone’s college fees, if they win this raffle. my god do irish ppl love a raffle. the teenagers are throwing money on eachother. this is bananas but also, i have so many questions

this is a really generous incentive but where... is the money from? who is investing in this empire? the almost cartoonish performance of wealth here with no background is really fascinating and is straight out of the team ten/jake paul rulebook. it’s bizarre

like i think we have to be responsible in our commentary: we have to look critically at this as it happens rather than just scoffing at it. even if it is kind of funny, it also means something, i just don’t know what. anyway, like i said,

i also want to be clear before fiat 500 twitter get to this: i am not mocking the business, or any of the teenagers. i don’t go in for that: i just find irish people so closely emulating american performances really interesting & think that’s worth noting. and also

again. to be clear. i am not talking shit about these kids. i just think it’s worth looking at the really direct cultural trend towards performances of utterly inexplicable wealth as entertainment & the way a particular kind of american culture washes the internet. that’s all!

i have to mute this now! xx