"How TikTok Accidentally Created a Scientology Heartthrob"

Rolling Stone: 

Sources formerly close to the church say Sebastian is likely what is known in the community as a “body router,” typically a young, attractive staffer who is assigned to stand outside the Church of Scientology Information Center, hand out literature, and invite passersby into the building to learn more about the church.

...

Over the past month, Sebastian has achieved TikTok heartthrob status. Ironically, anti-Scientology protesters are partially to blame. For the past few months, a grassroots movement of Los Angeles-based content creators have been attempting to disrupt foot traffic from tourists by protesting outside the Center. Though Sebastian generally ignores the people who have gathered there — as many as 50 at a time — his movie-star good looks have led to the creation of various fan accounts (some ironic, some less so) and the #FreeSebastian hashtag, based around videos of protesters attempting to engage him and convince him to leave the church.

...

What’s undeniable is that, as the protest movement has grown and the Center has become a de facto destination for TikTokers, it has become significantly more chaotic. 

Related:

I love AO3. pic.twitter.com/fvrQZoSHCC

— Eize Basa (@PonchoRebound) January 10, 2024

Hype Simulator, an app that lets you simulate being extremely famous on social media, is the number one free app in the iOS store

Input:

Opening the app, you’re confronted with Andy Warhol’s famous quote: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes.” The next screen prompts users to input a username, and to select from what it’s like to be a celebrity, or going viral. You can input profile details such as your first name, last name and a short bio, and upload a profile picture, then you press the button “Start your fame”.

My account – which looks eerily like the TikTok interface – started off with a handful of followers. Quickly, that ballooned to 15,000, and then to 29,200. At the same time, notifications rolled down from the top of the screen from strangers, asking for shoutouts, money and tips to become successful. Delve into your messages and respond to one that says “Can you respond back to me” and the reply comes: “I cant even”. Reply again and you get another manic response: “okay, deep breaths …”

Press the live button to start a stream and suddenly the number of viewers ticks past 1,000, and users plead to be noticed. Close down the app and the notifications continue: within minutes, iOS notifications clog up your actual phone screen, telling you you’ve passed 100,000 followers and have earned verification on the app.

When your 15 minutes are up, the app ends – though if you’re after another dopamine hit and some validation, you can press “Restart”

An incredibly deep dive into two guys that have gone viral due to people watching Supermarket Sweep reruns on Netflix

Part of an admirably thorough article by Kevin Fallon about two thin, single, and neat guys that did really well on Supermarket Sweep in 1993:

Two separate Reddit threads exist asking for information about where Brandon and Kevin are now, one flat-out asking, “Were they together?”

TikTok user and Supermarket Sweep obsessive Emmaline Childs posted a call on her account, guessing that because they were in college at the time, the pair might have kids who would be the right age to be on TikTok. “If this is your dad, duet this!” she said, referring to the practice of taking someone else’s video and pairing it with a new one of your own.

She was right. Brandon’s daughter, Emily, found it and dueted it with it, showing photos of herself with her dad. Then Kevin’s wife created a TikTok account and posted a video of their three boys reenacting their final sweep in a local grocery store, which is about the most adorable way to go viral. At the end of the clip, Kevin himself poses with his sons.

"The strange case of . . . the influencer who came back as a different person

Sarah Manavis for New Statesman:

In 2015, when he joined Musical.ly, the app for sharing lip-syncing videos that was bought by TikTok in 2018, he posted near-daily clips of himself doing jerky dance moves, acting out scenes with his fiancé . . . and flashing his abs. Within 18 months, [his] seemingly mundane videos were regularly drawing half a million views per clip and he became one of the most popular users on the app. By the start of 2017, [he] had gained an audience of just under a million Instagram followers and a whopping seven million on Musical.ly. These followers then transferred to TikTok when it was bought, giving [him] one of the largest followings on the world's fastest-growing social media platform.

...

hundreds of users complained that he had not honoured the promises he'd made to secure these gifts . . . . In the midst of the controversy, he disappeared from social media entirely – wiping his Instagram and YouTube channel of all content.

...

That was until late last year, when [he] reappeared with a bizarre post that many claim was an attempt to rebrand himself as a new person, Troy Becker: someone with a different age, job, and identity.

"Runner who slapped reporter’s butt on live TV identified as youth minister"

"as well as a Boy Scout leader"

Related:

thinking about the "Ridiculously Photogenic Guy" marathon runner meme from 2012 and how quickly present day twitter would have reduced his entire life to ash

— JuanPa (@jpbrammer) December 10, 2019

"Inside Twitch's Wildest Talk Show"

Cecilia D'Anastasio for Kotaku:

Speaking from inside adjacent squares, a la “The Brady Bunch,” Rajj Patel’s guests appear from across the world, together and live on camera to an average audience of 20,000, who prolifically spam emotes like Omegalul and KEKW, known also as the “Spanish laughing guy.” Looking at his fellow guests from his home monitor, WesBTW, a trollish character with a military-style buzz cut, makes a declaration in lieu of introducing himself: His compatriots are, in his words, “two angry soyboys,” “a handful of whos” and “four wannabe Amouranths who,” he says in cruder terms, aren’t brave enough to show more skin for clout.

...

It’s hard not to view these shows as exercises in online branding. In a recent Rajjchelorette, Austin tells the handsome politics streamer Hasan Piker that the “woman of your dreams is in this room,” as the cast preens themselves in the corner, or leans casually on their beds. One by one, they get eliminated, and when they are, they must reveal whether they chose in the beginning to go on a date or have their stream hosted by the contestant, which would boost their notoriety. The final woman remaining would get her wish—“love or host.” After four hours, Piker chooses the streamer and ex-pornstar Mia Malkova, who herself chose “love.” He reacts euphorically, and weeks later, live on another Twitch stream, meets Malkova in person at Twitchcon.

A recent episode:

"You might not know me, but I’m famous. Don’t feel bad. Until recently, I didn’t know I was famous either"

From 2014, David Gordon in the NYTimes:

In 2010 I published a novel, “The Serialist.” It did fine for a debut, which is to say well enough to warrant a second, but my daily life didn’t change much: I wrote, I ran, I hung out with my friends. Then a Japanese translation came out, and things got strange. My book won a major Japanese literary contest, which was nice. Then it won another. Then another. Apparently this was extraordinary: No one had ever won all three before. I received copies of articles, which were totally incomprehensible to me except for the picture of my face and a big No. 1. I tried Google Translate, which rendered it all into tantalizing gibberish. My book was not even called “The Serialist” in Japan: The character is a pulp writer, so they used the title “Niryuu Shousetsuka,” which translates back into English as “Second-Rate Novelist.” That was me!

...

They made the movie very fast, in about six months, and invited me to the premiere in June 2013. My Japanese publishers had contrived to release my new book, “Mystery Girl,” at the same time. The novel wouldn’t even be published in English until July.

...

In a daze, I was paraded before the press, blinded by flashbulbs and tracked by TV cameras. But because I couldn’t understand the directions, I often talked to the wrong camera

*Previously: "Birmingham brought to standstill by YouTuber James Charles"

NY Post on Elizabeth Holmes and her fiancee

NYPost:

“He gave her his MIT signet ring,” said the colleague, who worked with Evans at Luminar Technologies, a Palo Alto, Calif., firm that produces sensors for self-driving cars. “Billy and the MIT ring, they are inseparable. He always wore it on his pinky finger.

“He could snap his fingers and have a triple-A diamond engagement ring instantly if he wanted to. But if you give her some extravagant ring, it could end up owned by the feds if she has to give up her material possessions.”

...

“I met two of his ex-girlfriends. They were both Instagram models, and he was super proud of that fact,” the colleague said. “He would date young, absolutely drop-dead-gorgeous girls [with big followings].”

...

After graduation, Evans tried to create a health-care startup that would charge wealthy Chinese people a large fee to be shuttled to the US for concierge medical attention

"Birmingham brought to standstill by YouTuber James Charles"

Guardian:

Birmingham was brought to a standstill on Saturday, with motorists abandoning cars and the city gridlocked for hours after thousands of teenagers flooded the city centre to see a 19-year-old YouTuber make a 30-second public appearance at a cosmetics store.

...

Charles, who was making his first visit to the UK, stepped outside the Birmingham shop for a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony at 4pm before heading back inside for a private meet-and-greet session with 250 competition winners. He later claimed about 8,000 fans were in the shopping centre itself, which had to shut down its escalators for safety reasons and employ extra security staff.

BBC (which has photos of the packed mall):

West Midlands Police had earlier said the gridlock was caused by problems with traffic lights at the junction of Bristol Street and The Horsefair.

But contractor Amey later said this was incorrect and the lights had been working all day.

"Two Canadian sisters with large Instagram followings have been arrested in Nigeria and charged with threatening to blackmail and extort a well-known African billionaire online"

BF:

the sisters have a history of recording conversations and having sex with rich men — then threatening to release the recordings, photos, or videos

...

The Matharoos have also gained a level of infamy in Nigeria — where they had become fixtures in the nightlife scene — by feuding with the wives of prominent businessmen in Instagram comments. One Nigerian website that profiled them posted the headline: “Indian twin-menace: Nigeria’s most promiscuous sisters Jyoti and Kiran Matharoo. Why Billionaire Housewives Dread Them.”

"Fourteen-year-old Jacob Sartorious already has the fanbase of a pop star"

Vice:

Sartorious first achieved viral fame at 11 years old by posting an anti-bullying Vine that blew up overnight . . . . But the lip sync app Musical.ly, used by 130 million people including roughly half of the U.S. teen and preteen population, is what jumpstarted his burgeoning music career.

"Stalker Sarah...The full-time celebrity chaser"

Motherboard:

Stalker Sarah is well-known as a “super-fan” and doesn’t mind being called by her “stalker” title. She adopted it years ago in response to some angry Jonas Brothers fans, and uses it in place of her real name, which she keeps secret. Sarah gets told to stay away from famous people on a daily basis, but getting close to them is her job. In her world, proximity to fame is a currency, one she has turned into a career which spans thousands of celebrity selfies.

Stalker Sarah apparently never sleeps. The full-time celebrity chaser updates her 157k Instagram followers and 126k followers on Twitter daily. In 2013, she was even profiled in the New York Times Magazine. She appears outside hotels, at airports, and in underground carparks late at night as frequently as official tours and signings. Her updates record the tedium as well as the excitement of active fandom—camping out, waiting in the cold, and dodging bodyguards in the quest for the perfect picture.