The Wild West of the Internet is Here
The internet is the wild west, always has been, and hopefully it always will be. It holds the craziest of ideas, memes, and chat groups.
The internet can make people famous, YouTube being the main catalyst. However, people are becoming famous because of stolen memes and self objectification. As these figures gain traction on platforms like instagram and twitter, people are growing skeptical.
With the rise of instagram around 2010, a new trend came: meme accounts. The basis of a meme account is to, well, meme. These anonymous instagram accounts are run by average people who believe they have a firm grasp on memes both current and old, and want to share their humor with the rest of the world.
There are private meme accounts, public meme accounts, general meme accounts, and themed meme accounts. Overall, these accounts are amazing and serve a great role in shaping culture and conversation between people of all age ranges.
What happens when a meme account gains over 14 million followers? They become famous. Maybe, they get a verification checkmark next to their username. These accounts are known as internet personalities, and influencers.
When they have such a big follower base to work with, these accounts are able to decide what is funny and what isn’t. Of course, the internet will always have a mind of its own and things can rise to popularity without the influencers help.
Watch: The American Meme on Netflix
Meme influencers @thefatjewish and @fuckjerry are prime examples of internet influencers.
John Ostrovsky, or @thefatjewish, identifies as an entrepreneur. One could think of the job of instagram memer as professional cultural commentary. Nothing can be status quo if you are an internet influencer. Ostrovsky only participates in the weirdest of activities.
Influencers like Ostrovsky build a unique portfolio online, specifically instagram, and then if it takes off, companies begin to ask them to do sponsors. This is really the bread and butter of their scheme. They become the meme that they make.
As this “job” industry grows, people are questioning if the wealth and fame is justified. Should internet personalities be able to capitalize off of material that is essentially not theirs?
The revenue their internet fame has generated has enabled Ostrovsky among others to pursue their entrepreneurial endeavors. For example, he recently announced his wine franchise, “Babe,” on instagram.
While Ostrovsky’s fame might be primarily self generated, the instagram account @fuckjerry moderated by Elliot Tebele, built its fame on the foundation of stolen jokes.
Tebele, who has since started a complete franchise called Jerry Media, uses screenshots from twitter among other things as content for his account @fuckjerry.
While this use of tweets is not necessarily illegal, it is immoral disregard the person who generated the humorous tweet/piece of media. This is part of internet etiquette, or really etiquette in general. When writing an essay, cite the sources.
Comedians and celebrities are particularly upset at Tebele’s practices because lets face it, it is hard enough to make it as a comedian with out other people stealing your jokes.
Jerry Media has also created a game called “Know Your Meme.” In the game some of the memes or tweets are from the @fuckjerry instagram.
People are upset because Tebele and those involved in Jerry Media are making money hand over fist from their content. When there was no initial permission given from the creator to be turned into a meme.
Although, the argument presents itself that if one tweets, posts a picture on instagram, or really anything on the internet, it is out there for anyone to utilize or make fun of. Thus, is their use of content justified?
Never mind plagiarized content, Jerry Media was recently involved in the Fyre festival fiasco that scammed individuals of up to $12,780. Fyre fest visionary Billy McFarland contracted with Jerry Media as the festival’s publicity team.
Jerry Media helped attract people to the festival. However, once it became apparent that it would likely fall though due to bad planning, they knowingly lied to attendees and assisted McFarland in his scam. They are now facing social ridicule as many celebrities have posted about the bad practice using the hashtag #fuckfuckjerry.
Influencer accounts may be wrong in their capitalist endeavors, but they are essentially the ones deciding what is popular and what isn’t. Perhaps users should regain control and decide who they are willing to buy into rather than buy into an internet niche that promotes plagiarism and artificiality.
