Status, influence and attention as currency — how visibility, reputation and reach get accumulated, traded and spent.
Status ran through more sessions than the programme let on. The What Even is Online Anymore? panel mapped the exchange rate: dating profiles curated like CVs, brands balancing a self-deprecating tone with a sharp curatorial eye, and performance itself changing shape as TikTok swaps a known audience for a lottery of strangers. Times New Roadman described the result — social media as a performative blueprint, everyday life scripted to read as an archetype.
Lucinda Bounsell added the merch economy (insider signalling, not fandom), and The Rules That Make Us named the cost: digital narcissism that writes off anyone outside your own subculture. The temperature: knowing — everyone recognised at least a little of themselves in it.
The pressure to project a curated image has transformed everyday activities into scripted rituals, whether it is the aesthetic of a chef or the specific attire of a football fan. This behavior is driven by a constant need to be seen as a specific archetype, turning life into a series of performative rites of passage.
The shift from curated, long-term social graphs like Instagram to algorithmic, lottery-based discovery on TikTok fundamentally alters how users perceive their audience. Because TikTok content is often served to strangers rather than a known social circle, the nature of the performance changes, forcing users to redefine what authenticity means in a context where they are no longer speaking to people they know.
Brands often mistakenly view these as mutually exclusive, but the most successful online identities combine a self-deprecating, shit-posting tone with a high-level curatorial eye. Being bold with both dimensions allows content to cut through the noise.
Annie House
From: What Even is Online Anymore?The rise of digital narcissism encourages individuals to view those outside their own subcultures as inherently inferior or irrational, which ultimately erodes social cohesion. This inward focus can lead to delusional thinking and a profound inability to empathize with different viewpoints.
Users treat dating profiles as performance spaces where they select specific keywords and tones to optimize for perceived desirability, mirroring the transactional nature of LinkedIn. This curation often fails to capture the nuance of a person's actual character.
Merchandise often functions as a form of insider signaling that goes beyond simple fandom.
Lucinda Bounsell
Founder and Head of Strategy, Sibling Studio
