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IJOBA LANDE: Social Media Influencers and Micro-celebrities and the Promotion of Absurdity, Mediocrity and Nudity – Wale Oni

By Mar 10, 2025, 13:55 pm124

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The rise of social media influencers and micro-celebrities has reshaped the cultural landscape, often rewarding spectacle over substance. Scholars such as Crystal Abidin (2018) and Brooke Erin Duffy (2017) highlight how platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and OnlyFans commodify personal branding, encouraging influencers to prioritise engagement metrics over meaningful content and popularity over sanity. While it is noteworthy to highlight the digital economy of scale in increased visibility of the creative arts and artistes via social media and the affordances of transitioning from new to legacy media and vice versa, the dumbing down of artistic content and quality performance for self aggrandisement, ‘audio succes’ and ‘virtual glory’ mined from virality with no significant social impact is troubling.

The pursuit of virality has led to the normalisation of absurdity – where pranks, clout-chasing stunts, and exaggerated personas gain traction, as seen in Alice Marwick’s (2015) analysis of attention economies. Mediocrity thrives in social media ecosystem, as algorithm-driven content prioritises accessibility and relatability over expertise or formal talent. In addition, nudity and hyper-sexualised imagery, as discussed by Gill (2008) in Gender and the Media, have become dominant strategies for visibility, reinforcing the idea that aesthetic appeal equates to social capital. Meanwhile, liberal ideals of self-expression and individual freedom have fueled an online environment where provocative content is celebrated as empowerment, often blurring the line between genuine social progress and mere commodification. As Rosalind Gill (2008) argues, neoliberal feminism has repackaged hyper-sexualised self-presentation as a form of agency, reinforcing market-driven narratives of empowerment that benefit platforms and advertisers more than individuals. At the same time, woke culture – rooted in social justice and identity politics – has amplified the idea that personal expression is inherently political, allowing influencers to frame even the most trivial or sensationalist content as activism. As Catherine Rottenberg (2018) highlights in The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism, this often results in performative displays of “wokeness” that prioritise visibility over substantive change, aligning with the attention economy rather than challenging its exploitative mechanisms. Ultimately, both liberalism’s emphasis on individualism and wokeism’s focus on hyper-visibility have contributed to a media landscape where shock value, self-promotion, and superficial activism often overshadow meaningful discourse.

While these trends reflect deeper cultural and economic shifts, they also raise critical questions: Are we shaping social media, or is it shaping us? As platforms continue to reward extremes, society must grapple with the long-term effects on identity, self-worth, and digital culture.

Reacting to Lande and his promiscuous wife in search of fame and vain glory.

Next, is HASHTAG JUSTICES: Of micro-celebrities and social media influencers and their court of public opinion: #justiceformohbad and related ‘justices’ in perspective.

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124 thoughts on “IJOBA LANDE: Social Media Influencers and Micro-celebrities and the Promotion of Absurdity, Mediocrity and Nudity – Wale Oni”

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