Virtual influencers force microcelebrity to be redefined as practice rather than identity.

Evidence

In my first published article on microcelebrity, I took some pains to explain that microcelebrity is not an identity, nor is it simply “celebrity” scaled down (Marwick & boyd, 2011). Instead, I stated clearly that microcelebrity is a practice; it is something one does, a way to present oneself online and relate to others, regardless of how many people are actually watching. This might suggest that microcelebrity can be practiced by anyone, or, perhaps, any thing. That distinction between identity and practice is much less clear to me than it was in 2009 when, freshly returned from my fieldwork in Silicon Valley, I spent a summer obsessing over celebrities on Twitter. Is someone a microcelebrity if they are not courting fame? Is someone a microcelebrity if they are actively courting fame, but not achieving it? Is someone a microcelebrity if they are positioned, styled, and branded by a corporation? — Crystal Abidin and Megan Lindsay Brown (eds.), Microcelebrity Around the Globe, 1191

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clear articulation of the microcelebrity-as-practice definition and the open questions Lil Miquela poses to it.
• DEEPTHINKING: If a practice can be executed by a thing, not a person, does microcelebrity remain about human self-presentation at all — or has the field’s core object dissolved into brand management?
• XREF: connects to: A corporation created and operates a fake Instagram influencer to sell brands. — Crystal Abidin and Megan Lindsay Brown (eds.), Microcelebrity Around the Globe:…, 1187; 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