All those people pictured above are actors in a Netflix series, and are portraying a group of fame-following roommates. I, personally, think that the pink outfit, with the matching hair and heels, says an awful lot! That is definitely a vivid depiction of "fleeting virality" in its most brazen form.
Here is a link to the article, in Quartz, from which I have taken the image - and below I am providing an excerpt from that article (with emphasis added):
The Hype MachineCould famous people help each other become more famous? Worth a shot! Step inside the creator economy’s version of the Hollywood studio system: the hype house, in which a group of creators moves into a sprawling mansion, churns out content, and hopes to turn fleeting virality into less-fleeting fame and cash. Made famous by TikTok, the concept has also cropped up on Instagram and YouTube. But whatever platform it perches on, the hype house model always walks a tightrope: ambition vs. flameout, glamour vs. desperation.
The history dates back to 2019, when TikTokers Chase Hudson and Thomas Petrou launched the original Hype House near Los Angeles. They borrowed the idea from earlier YouTube “collab houses” like Team 10. But TikTok’s short, addictive clips accelerated the cycle: More videos meant more chances to go viral. The mansions themselves became co-stars, their marble kitchens, walk-in closets, and backyard pools becoming instantly recognizable backdrops. And now, because everything old is new again, the hype house is finding its way into more traditional media, from TV to novels.
The hype house formula is being canonized — and parodied — by mainstream culture. Netflix’s short-lived reality series Hype House followed a cast of young influencers as they navigated friendship, business, and burnout inside the original LA mansion. The show was supposed to cement the group’s crossover into mainstream celebrity. Instead, it underscored how quickly hype houses generate melodrama. Perhaps unsurprisingly, constant filming and the pressure to monetize every moment make for combustible living conditions.
Even as the first wave burned out, the model proliferated. Collab mansions have sprung up across Los Angeles, Miami, and Atlanta, and internationally. Landlords now advertise properties as “ideal for content houses.” For investors, a hype house is an asset class — a bet that one viral clip could pay off a six-figure lease. For neighbors, meanwhile, they’re often a nuisance, bringing noise and traffic.
The content mansion has now become a metaphor for both limitless aspiration and its lurking costs. “We used to hear stories of young models and actresses being stopped by talent scouts at the mall; now creators like Addison Rae or Alex Warren use TikTok to build fandoms that they can leverage into lucrative careers as entertainers,” says the novelist Leigh Stein, whose new book is a gothic mystery set in a haunted hype house — the first such novel of its kind. In the end, Stein says, hype houses are really “unregulated factories,” meaning the haunting is literal as it is figurative.
I came across the Quartz article discussing "hype houses," and "content mansions" shortly after reading an online article that told me that "more than half of those born from 1997 - 2012 [our so-called "Gen Z"] say a career as a full-time influencer or content creator is their ideal career."
I note that the kind of communal housing arrangement being discussed in the article is not, apparently, an evidence that those inhabiting the "content house" have "found some friends," at least not in the way I am always advising is desirable.
Every person in the "content house" is operating individually, each of them seeking individual fame and fortune. Please do note, also, how that word "content" is being pronounced in the excerpt furnished above. We are not speaking here of a house of "content," or "contentment," when that spelling and pronunciation indicates a different idea entirely, the idea that one is happy and satisfied with one's situation.
I continue to advise that we should all be on the lookout, and should be trying, to "find some friends." I am making that recommendation, though, because I am suggesting that our "salvation," and I use the word intentionally, will be the product of our common and collective efforts, and will not derive from individualistic efforts to chase fame, fortune, and "influence."
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