ok borderline gen xer
I continue to be amused that “social media influencer” is a job title, with people of fame to people who are not me so described in Entertainment news headlines. Today’s such headline features some comments self – mocking her lack of higher education as qualifier for an actual job in the Entertainment field with respondents on social media agitated because of their own comparative over qualification — six years of broadcast college and I got nothing but student debt. Yeah, I offer no remedies except suggesting one talks in the lyrics of Weird Al Yankovic’s original song “Skipper Dan”. It would be one thing if this were a crapshoot, but no– it is all rigged against you are staring at a closed system. This “social media influencer” of four months of higher education got to her social media fame by way of the Kardashians. The good news may be that the rote fixed headline “Celebrity/Politician/Influencer Says/Tweets Something, Twitter Explodes/Destroys Him/Her” will collect a handful of tweets and one may be yours, which is a kind of momentary fame.
I have to skip a beat on the next such headline. Tik tokers are on strike. It is a story that affects me not at all, and which there is never a point in my life when it might have, or hypothetically if I were in the next generation could have mattered to me — as I am now deprived of Tik tok video content. When last l saw a tik tok news story, it was on how bikini clad tik tok stars were getting around policy regulations against scantily clad as defined as sexual content, dress only acceptable if in a context where they may be wearing such, by bringing in hot tubs. This one maybe has a better social justice angle. Black tik tokers not getting credit as dance moves find their way into mainline televised content — it is enough that Jimmy Fallon has to comment. Hm. Last time I saw such a “cultural appropriation scandal” it was Miley Cyrus twerking — cue a bunch of YouTube video clips of (urban black girls doing such followed by smattering of YouTube clips of white suburban white girls included in the mix (as too suburban black girls and urban white girls) and, ultimately, the Underaged Dance club in the city holding a “Better than Miley” twerking contest. Or, an obnoxious piece of Black culture was co-opted into an obnoxious piece of white culture. I guess in the case here — sure, the random assortment of tik tokers need to get their due, even if I doubt there is any real origin point in real life, or clear delineation of who precisely deserves credit. But I don’t know if the world suffers by a few fewer clips of dancers.
The third story of famous “who?” headline with a “why?” headline — Andrew Cuomo’s daughter has come out as “demisexual”. Reading further, I get an exploration of her journey of sexual identity understanding — into “bi”, but then seeing that was not right somehow so discovering “demi”. And with that we have a full definition of “demisexual” and a headline on “How to be an ally” for demisexuals. Demisexuals are apparently one who needs emotional attachment for sexual fulfillment. Boring hetero normative guy I am, I scratch my head and ask “and that is an identity worthy of a letter or a color in a flag — why?” Maybe you need shorthand for Craigslist personals? Or, she still strikes me as the bisexual she conclulded she was, with the terms of bisexuality being thusly — no one night stands for her! Who cares, and I guess I make a poor ally. But best to ignore her and explore the policy decisions of her father instead.