The People vs. The NYC Influencers???
Unpacking the clamor around NYC’s aspirational #lifestyle creators (plus, that "When He Hasn't Yet..." meme taking over your feed)
Welcome to PRZM Deep Dive — our new bi-monthly essay where we zoom in (and out) about a major topic that’s shaping next-gen culture and behaviors.
And if you came here for a quick “What’s Happening” recap about this week’s top digital culture stories, we still have that at the end.
What's Inside:
🔎 Deep Dive: Taking a bite out of the Big Apple’s influencer drama
🌶️ What’s Happening: The Foodie Boyz go Barstool, AI does “creative” writing, and the TikTok trend that has us waiting …
Deep Dive: The People vs. The NYC Influencers
TikToker @MartiniFeeny lit up the timeline when she made a video expressing her exhaustion with “boring NYC influencers.” Allegations include that many top NYC-based content creators wear the “same bracelets,” “shop at Revolve,” and adhere to the same classic beauty standard. While the video didn’t name any creators outright, the replies became a chance for users to call out whatever major account they believed fit the bill.
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Toxicity aside, the mega-virality of this video (which was made by a smaller creator with less than 4,000 followers) shows us that agita visa vi “the influencer lifestyle” is widespread. Clearly, many have a lot to say about a group of people whose life appears to be a seemingly endless cycle of brand trips, dinners at The Corner Store, and Tracy Anderson workouts. Pair this discourse cycle with the recent trend of TikTokers skewering the monotone vocal style of popular influencers, and it’s clear: frustration and boredom surrounding “influencer culture” is reaching a fever pitch.
But who is considered an “NYC influencer,” really? Users were quick to add that “NYC-based content creators” ≠ “NYC Influencers,” highlighting that when people refer to the latter, they usually mean a certain type of beauty and lifestyle creator who just happens to live in NYC. For example, many comments highlighted TikToker @aiyannace as an example of a New Yorker on TikTok whose content is a far cry from boring. Her most popular videos feature her eating seafood boils, exploring hidden NYC stables, and having a chaotic driving lesson in the outer boroughs. With 2.5 million followers and an SNL invite, Aiyanna is undeniably a big influencer—but without the matcha-colored lens on her content, she’s not grouped in with the “NYC influencer” crowd Feeny’s video references.
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So why do accounts like Aiyanna’s spark a different reaction than the so-called “NYC influencers” in question? A straightforward answer: the public may be growing weary of “soft lives” presented without real stakes. But influencers have always operated in a space that presents a fantasy version of life. What makes this moment different for this Gen Z cohort may lie in how TikTok has evolved. Once a bastion of individuality and oddity, there’s a sense that the algorithm is serving us all the same kinds of (cookie cutter) videos and creators. What once was a “For You Page” now may seem like a “For Us” page, and the backlash we saw this week may be a messy call for a return to weirdness.
So what should brands, creators and marketers make of this week’s hubbub? No, it’s not time (yet) to completely abandon #lifestyle content. But this discourse cycle should be taken as a real temperature check on how the public is thinking about the content they want to see during a time that feels politically chaotic, economically precarious, and maybe even culturally stagnant. Plus, it’s worth noting that whether a creator is deemed an “influencer” or not doesn’t really determine whether they are truly influential. Influence, after all, can come from anyone, anywhere, and in any format. And sometimes, a seafood boil sounds even better than chic Kale Caesar in SoHo.
What’s Happening
🙏 Foodie Boyz Come up - Remember the MD Foodie Boyz, the Gen Alpha podcast prodigies we discussed last Dispatch? They just got a co-sign from Barstool founder, Dave Portnoy. The come up continues.
🤖 AI Authors - AI has developed a new model that is “good at creative writing,” but the AI-written piece of meta-fiction they shared was seen as laughably awkward by many. Will writerly robots slow down the BookTok-powered literary boom if the AI model improves?
🌞 When He STILL Hasn’t Asked… - TikToker Maddy McBride found virality through this simple yet surreal, meta-humor format — from personifying a sad four leaf clovers to a sad pie on Pi Day — that has us oddly in our feelings?