Clicks & Clout: How We Seek Status In the Digital Age

Life, put simply, is all about status. I recently read W. David Marx’s book Status and Culture —thanks Bryce Ferguson for the rec—and that fact was my clear takeaway. The book subtly changed how I look at the world; when you start to pay attention, status dictates nearly everything in our lives.

In the book, Marx argues that:

1. There is no human soci

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I often think of the Noah Smith quote: “Fifteen years ago, the internet was an escape from the real world. Now, the real world is an escape from the internet.”

Here’s a stunning stat: more than 39,000 accounts on TikTok now have at least 1M followers. This creates “niche fame” where within a specific following, a creator may be a rockstar, but more broadly, that same creator may be completely unknown.

Quantified status also drives entire industries. Influencer marketing is a $24B market growing quickly. The industry is built on status associations. We see this clearly in the 2010s rise of “the lifestyle influencer”—lifestyles are the most obvious markers of status, and the influencer economy is built on aspiration .

We’re living in an interesting moment: culture has arguably changed more in the last 30 years than in any three decade span in history. Technology supercharged the pace of social change. The internet and smartphones drove change over the last quarter-century, and AI will drive change over the next quarter-century.

Any enterprising creator can build a business as a curator of products, monetizing her influence. Savvy businesses underpin this new economy. Flagship, one of my portfolio companies at Daybreak, allows anyone with a community to launch their own boutique storefront that showcases their favorite products. They earn ~20% of sales in exchange for dire... See more