Influencer Cliff: Alix Earle Edition

Beware the Influencer Cliff: Alix Earle Edition. And the effort taboo. Influencers and the effort taboo. Even the biggest influencers in the world have fragile parasocial relationships because that's how parasocial relationships work. They're lopsided and vulnerable to damage, especially when influencers reveal that there is considerable effort behind their empires. And it's this effort conundrum I want us to focus on specifically, the situational irony of an internet celebrity's success being contingent on their ability to sell an effortless fantasy. When the summer jingle when the very act of posting yourself online everyday is inherently an effort to be seen. So, Tiffany Alexis Earl, one of the OG TikTokers with over 8 million followers, she just debuted the trailer for her new reality TV show, Earl Meets World that follows her and her band of divorced parents and siblings. And if this premise sounds familiar, it's because it is. Casey Lewis pointed out that Earl's trailer had only amassed 23,000 views in nearly 24 hours - not a good sign. If you compare that to the most recent TikTok that Earl posted about the show that garnered 6.1 million views. So why the disparity? The Influencer Cliff, which is a term that describes when fans fall out of love with a public figure. And it's especially common when influencers like Earl attempt to graduate from a platform level sphere of influence like TikTok to a viable business in the outside world, like a Netflix series. It's not a hot mess in their iPhone. It's a try hard and their entire production. In this recent Atlantic article about the Earl versus Alex Cooper feud, which I'm not gonna get into, the author notes that Earl treats her success as a happy accident. She describes herself as a "hot mess" and acts like the girl's girl next door. "I don't get very political online and that's my choice," she told Time for its recent issue devoted to the world's top-100 creators; Earle was on the cover. "A lot of my reasoning for that is when I've been younger I think I've gone online and spoken before I actually knew what I was speaking about, and I think it's really important for me to be educated on what I'm speaking on." She makes $450,000 for each sponsored Instagram story post, and her skin-care company sold $1 million worth of products within its first five minutes, meaning it just happened. And that fits the effortless influencer narrative. But then Earl Grace's cover of Time magazine and revealed for probably the first time ever that she is really working and it's a grind. Now for the harsh truth, effort is admirable, but effort on social media is taboo, especially witnessed effort, which is more or less the definition of cringe. And once you are caught trying, you are no longer selling the fantasy, you're just mirroring back our own imperfect reality. And that's not why we scroll. Once the cracks form and the viewers see just how much of the spontaneity is premeditated, they're inclined to change the channel to find somebody younger and hotter and more willing to pretend that the hustle is easy.