Culture | Bizzy bees

Are influencers shrewd businesspeople or fame-hungry narcissists?

A new group of books shows how digital creators have turned attention into profits

Members of Hype House, an influencer group, pose in the bathroom where they record most of their online content
Smiley facesImage: Michelle Groskopf/The New York Times/Redux/Eyevine

The internet and its cultural impact are most often viewed through the lens of the “tech bro”, the (usually male) geniuses and fraudsters behind the corporations reshaping the world. Biographies, memoirs and salacious tell-alls about these big-tech bosses have shaped readers’ understanding of how the online world changes the offline one. But these books rarely mention the principal figures who have shaped the experience of being online: social-media influencers.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Bizzy bees”

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