Vol. 128, No. 74 Thursday, December 6, 2018

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Vol. 128, No. 74 Thursday, December 6, 2018

NEWS

OPINION

SPORTS

CSU Online looks to the future of education

Violence surrounding the migrant caravan

Women’s physicality in sports needs to increase

page 4

page 9

page 17

With the increase of availability of social media, fame seems more accessible than ever. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY COLIN SHEPHERD COLLEGIAN

Chasing fame: Students reflect on large social media followings By Henry Netherland @NetherlandHenry

With the increasing ubiquity of social media, access to fame seems easier than ever. Anyone with access to a decent camera can attract attention through their personality, talents or by exploiting their platform’s algorithm. According to Google Trends, the term “clout” skyrocketed into the public dialect as re-

cently as August 2017. Many have begun to use “clout” and “clout chasing” in relation to attempting online fame. Urban Dictionary defines “clout chaser” as “a person that only hangs with certain people or starts beef with people to gain popularity.” A recent example of clout chasing occurred with rapper Kid Buu, whose real name is Markquez Lao Santiago. Through a YouTube confession

from an ex-girlfriend, Buu was revealed to be a convicted child abuser who repeatedly lied about various aspects of his life including his age. He claimed to be 23 when he was actually 30 at the time. Before these revelations, Buu seemed to have a significant online following with millions of streams for his songs and associations with established rappers like Trippie Redd. This also turned out

to be fabricated. “No Jumper” podcast host Adam22 provided evidence from social media analytics website Social Blade that showed unusual spikes in popularity for Buu. According to Adam22, this proved that Buu was consistently purchasing bots to act as followers to seem he more popular than he actually was. Colorado State University apparel and merchandising senior Ray Mancini Jr. has ac-

quired almost 85,000 followers on Instagram through his participation in a YouTube series called, “@SummerBreak” and explains the reality of social media expectations. Mancini Jr. said people are attracted to the lifestyles they see on social media. “The perception of people’s lives on Instagram isn’t the same as their real

see FAME on page 20 >>


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