> Mostly he sold ads on his Instagram to other teenagers looking to promote their own pages, apps or online storefronts.<p>This is so MLM-esque. You can get big because I got big and if you follow me and do what I do, you'll get big like me too.<p>Meanwhile, exactly no value is being created. We need value creation not ... piggy backing? What is it? You might learn how to persuade people or know what people will click on or generate ad revenue, but what are <i>you</i> creating? What are you doing that makes the world a better place?<p>What practical skills are you improving or sharing or developing that will move the world forward?<p>The value appears to be merely convincing someone that something without value has actual value.<p>He wanted the clout to convince people of something that people shouldn't be convinced of. Don't go to college and get an education, because you can make 10k a month regurgitating someone else's meme photos.<p>Frankly, I don't understand it. I don't think it's good. Yes, in the article, there was mention of someone who appreciated what he was doing because it made them feel better, but so would developing a skill and being a productive member of society.<p>I can't see how the instagramification of the world is a good thing.<p>We were at Thanksgiving dinner and my friend's 8 year old was <i>glued</i> to his iPhone. He had almost zero interaction with anyone except to say, "I turned it down!" after he was finally called out at the dinner table for a super loud music video that started playing and the old folks around the table could recognize the song. It was ironic because finally those without a phone could connect to him by the sounds that had the prior part of the evening been distracting noise. We couldn't talk to each other because we were so aggravated by the phone.<p>You can't even get away from the internet when you aren't on a computer anymore. It's infiltrated every aspect of life. People don't share their lives in person anymore. If you ask how someone is doing, they say, "Didn't you read my feed?"<p>No. I didn't read your feed. I want to connect with you in real life. I want to create something with you if it's only a conversation.<p>I don't know what to do or where to go to change, but I fear the opportunities to rectify this bad direction are diminishing.
Hacker news is a social network too. I think it's unfair to demonize young people's memes, it's just different. I've learnt a lot from young people's take on things than some old bitter oldfag.
tldr: 15yo boy has a FB account with 1.2M followers, which he fills with 100 posts a day. He makes $10k/month. Instagram <i>shut down the account without warning or reasoning</i>.<p>----<p>Reported months ago in this article in Atlantic:<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/08/instagram-hiring-meme-liaison/595552/" rel="nofollow">https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/08/insta...</a><p>It notes that "More meme accounts than ever are monetizing, and memes have become the default way many young people consume news information on the platform" ... and notes that: “Curation is a kind of creation. Within the right bounds, there can be a lot of value in finding gems and sharing them...”
We changed the linkbait title to what seems to be the most representative sentence from the article.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html</a><p>(Edit: the sentence was "What Rowan wanted was clout". Since changed.)
And not one mention of the ethics of the unattributed monetization of content other people spend their time and energy creating, likely for and without any payoff.<p>Then taking whatever money was coming from that and utilizing the schemes /biz/ discovers (bot purchases for high demand goods, drop shipping).<p>Zero value created, ethics trampled and yet his depression is over his lack of importance in the lives of transient internet celebrities.<p>One to watch, for sure.