How Real is Online Fame?
Are streamers actually famous? What does that even mean?
Welcome to the Weekly Scroll, your guide to the most interesting things happening on the social internet. This week we’re exploring what the ChudTheBuilder incident says about the nature of the clip economy and online fame, the decline of Twitter alternatives, Drake’s attempt to come back from the Kendrick Lamar beef, and more!
Notes on Internet Fame
The arrest of ChudTheBuilder last week led to an enormous amount of chatter online about the topics you’d expect - white nationalism, the legal rules surrounding self-defense claims, toxic livestreamers, etc. But one of the more interesting critiques of the entire situation centered around clipping and the nature of online fame.
The critique, which I saw in several places online, went something like this: ChudTheBuilder’s not even famous. He streams on an obscure fourth-rate streaming site. Looking at his livestreams, he doesn’t even have that much of an audience - a few thousand at best. He’s only famous because people like you react to him, you inadvertently spread his clips by commenting on how awful he is, and if we all just ignored his rage bait clips, he’d still be obscure.
I think this critique is correct, but that it also misses the point and manages to completely misunderstand how the attention economy works online. Clips are no longer just a promotional concept for other content. Clips ARE the content. They’re the whole thing.
