Rise of the Superstar Vloggers

2/03/2016 April 2 Comments



Rise of the Superstar Vloggers was a one off television documentary presented by blogger Jim Chapman on BBC 3 [1st February 2016]. The programme looked at vloggers and their rise in popularity over the past few years. When watching the documentary I could see how vloggers could be considered postmodern. One of the vloggers, Essena O'Neill. at the end of the programme explained why she has stopped blogging because of the impact that it has had on her life. She talked about how she has hundreds of thousands of followers on twitter and Instagram. She felt like she was living a fake life as all the images that she was posting had been specifically framed and edited to make it look like she had the perfect life, when in reality this was not the case.
"I have an insight into a world of social media that I believe not many people are aware of in terms of how it works in advertisements. I know a lot of other social media personalities and just how fake it all is. I had the "dream life". I had half a million people interested in me on Instagram. I had over 100,000 views on most of my videos on YouTube. To a lot of people, I'd "made it". Everything I was doing was edited and contrived and to get more value, and to get more views. And then here at nearly 19, with all these followers I don't even know wha is real and what is not because I have let myself be defined by something that is so not real."- Essena O'Neill 
This is something that a lot of the vloggers expressed throughout the programme. They all talked about how they were perceived by their fans to have a perfect life when in reality their lives aren't as perfect as they seem. They spoke about the issues on Youtube such as issues surrounding YouTubers taking advantage of fans e.g. Sam Pepper.
This can be related to hyperreality and the blurring of the real and simulacra. Fans of YouTubers cannot distinguish between their real lives and what has been staged and edited to look a certain way.

The programme is currently on BBC iPlayer:http://bbc.in/1WYfvVk
More information on Essena can be see here on her blog : http://essenaoneill.com/hello/
The Guardian wrote an article on Essena which can be found here: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/nov/03/instagram-star-essena-oneill-quits-2d-life-to-reveal-true-story-behind-images

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