Fans who see a constructed image force the influencer to fuse image and person

Evidence

Fan interest in Maples’s private life emphasizes that, yes, what we see is a construction: we are seeing an image produced for our consumption. We are seeing a “product,” a commodity that is Maples’s very identity as presented on YouTube. Because her fans are aware of the disjuncture between image and person, Maples must join the two by revealing personal information, including the details through which her videos are composed. — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 131

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing for the labor theory of value angle: if fans know the image is constructed, the self-disclosure is required labor — who realizes surplus value here, and is the labor the revealing itself or the living of a life worth revealing?