Microcelebrity evolved from hobbyism into full-time commercial Influence work across global locales.

Evidence

However, in the ten years since microcelebrity studies were first launched, social media platforms, internet norms, and the sociocultural uses and impacts of generating celebrity on the internet have developed rapidly. In the U.S., microcelebrities may have begun as hobbyists49 and adapted into networkers with professional businesses. In other parts of the world, like Singapore, they began as home-based fashion entrepreneurs through a makeshift online sales format known as “blogshops”. But today, being a microcelebrity has become a full-time vocational job for some as Influencers (see Chapter 4). Moreover, this era of the most commercialized form of microcelebrity has ushered in a variety of internet celebrity innovations. For instance, as an anthropologist, I have studied how Influencers who were the earliest adopters of social media regularly subvert the intended uses of apps like Instagram by strategizing their content into a commercial endeavor, 52, 53often at the expense of the free labor offered by their loyal followers. Further, as the earliest cohorts of Influencers progress in their lives to become romantic partners and parents, many of them are also grooming and growing (literally) their children into second-generation microcelebrities known as “micro-microcelebrities”, while other ordinary families are becoming internet celebrities by branding themselves as “family Influencers”. — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 83

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘blogshop’ origin of Singaporean influencers and the literal grooming of ‘micro-microcelebrities’ are distinctive empirical angles for a survey piece.
• XREF: connects to: An influencer industry standardized amateur microcelebrity into marketable tropes. — Crystal Abidin and Megan Lindsay Brown (eds.), Microcelebrity Around the Globe:…, 1196; Microcelebrity is strategic self-presentation aimed at accumulating attention and online status. — Alice E. Marwick, Instafame: Luxury Selfies in the…, 5; Micro-celebrity is a learned status practice rooted in Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial values — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 314 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• An influencer industry standardized amateur microcelebrity into marketable tropes. #corroborates (0.85) — Crystal Abidin and Megan Lindsay Brown (eds.), Microcelebrity Around the Globe, 1196
• Microcelebrity is strategic self-presentation aimed at accumulating attention and online status. #expands (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Instafame, 5
• Micro-celebrity is a learned status practice rooted in Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial values #expands (0.75) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 314
• Meme celebrities institutionalize their viral fame into sustained commercial businesses. #corroborates (0.75) — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity, 172
• Internet commercialization transformed an infrastructure into a space dimension overlaying society #expands (0.70) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 113