It’s hard to overstate how thoroughly youthful aspiration has become concentrated on online fame. A 2019 survey of 11–16-year-olds found 17 per cent wanted to be influencers and 14 per cent YouTubers. For comparison, the only traditional career choice that came ahead was doctor at 18 per cent.
In ‘Get Rich or Lie Trying: Ambition and Deceit in the New Influencer Economy’ (Atlantic Books, £16.99, ISBN 9781838950279), Channel 4 reporter Symeon Brown takes the reader on a whistlestop tour of the world of online fame and the aspiration, envy, deception, and division it breeds among those who see it as their best chance at social mobility. It is a compelling take on the evergreen ‘exposing the ugly underbelly of a glamorous industry’ genre.
Brown starts by recounting how, as a school student in Tottenham, North London, it was the hip-hop ‘hustler’ figures who became the relatable role models for boys like himself as traditional paths to social mobility dried...