The internet allows us to do fantastic and great things. We’re able to buy whatever we want with the click of a button, keep in touch with friends from halfway across the world, and discover the answer to nearly every question.

With that being said, I would argue that the internet’s greatest feature is the ability to project oneself online. Through the use of social media and video sharing platforms, we’ve been able to showcase our personality and opinions to the whole world. Nearly everyone has a social account, whether that be Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube or whatever else.

A wide variety of content is shared on social media across these socal apps, including pictures, opinions, status updates, achievement and inside jokes. We use these social apps as a means to stay in touch and share personal moments; it’s a great way to stay connected. At least that’s how most people view it.

Throughout the years there has been a sharp increase in people using their social media accounts as a way to promote themselves. Logan Paul, Kai Cenet, BBN$, KSI, Mr. Beast and so many more. These individuals are referred to as “influencers.”

Influencers are becoming increasingly more and more popular. So much so that many of them are breaking away from the internet world and influencing mainstream pop culture. Logan is a wrestler for the WWE, Mr. Beast has his own TV show, Ninja hosted ABC’s New Year’s Eve celebration.

It doesn’t end there however, we are now seeing mainstream celebrities joining the live streaming world. Lil Uzi Vert, NLE Choppa, Nicki Minaj, Bobby Shmurda, GloRilla, Bill Nye, Snoop Dogg, Miranda Cosgrove, Benny Blanco and so many more have appeared on Kai Cenet’s stream alone. Kick steamer Aiden Ross even had Donald Trump as a guest.

The line between internet celebrity and mainstream celebrity has started to blur. Which begs the question, how did this happen? Will these internet celebrities continue to stay popular or are they going to die out?

Let’s start off with the obvious, there have always been internet celebrities. Ever since the early 2010s, we have seen people make a name for themselves online.

The main difference, however, comes from the fact that they were much more niche. They were famous among the communities. Markiplier was the video game guy, Smosh were the comedy guys, David Dobrik was the vlog guy. The average person didn’t know who they were; you had to be into internet culture.

Things are much different now, however. There’s a brand new generation of internet users, young kids. More commonly referred to as “iPad kids,” there’s an endless legion of children who spend all day online. They’re spending more time on the internet than we are.

These content creators are getting millions upon millions of views, all thanks to children. This is not only causing the algorithm to boost their content, but it is also causing major corporations to take notice of them.

Many of these creators are also making major business decisions. We have the aforementioned TV endeavors, which while strange, isn’t the weirdest investment.

Prime, Feastables, Lunchly, all food products. They’re escaping from the digital world. I’m aware how dramatic that sounds but I honestly can’t think of another way of describing it.

Anyone is capable of knowing who these internet personalities are. Even if they have zero online presence, they can walk into a store and see Mr. Beast’s face on a display.

Once again, creators have been releasing merch for years. Books, shirts, plushies, so on. The main difference is that food products obviously have a much larger market. The previously mentioned pieces of merch were intended only for fans, unlike the food products.

So we all know that online influencers are certainly much more popular than they were before, but how comparable are they really? As big as a cop out as this may sound, it honestly depends.

Let’s look at someone like Sabrina Carpenter, who’s an insanely well known and respected artist. On the other hand we have someone like iShowSpeed, a twitch streamer known for his outlandish personality.

While Sabrina is popular among the college-aged crowd, Speed not only has a college audience, but a child one as well. Furthermore, he’s extremely popular in other countries. No matter where he’s at in the world, there will always be a group of people following him.

I believe that this is due to how we treat these stars. We see Sabrina as this untouchable icon. Meanwhile, Speed is just some dude that got popular. More people are able to relate to Speed; he’s more relatable.

Mr. Beast and Logan Paul, while they’re ridiculously rich, framed themselves as these down to earth and related individuals. Kids don’t want to look up to super stars; they want to look up to “normal people.” Influencers will never be as respected as traditional stars. They will, however, be just as popular.

Kids will eventually grow up and move on from these online creators, as we did, but the cycle will continue. They will be a new Mr. Beast in a few years, doing the exact same thing for a new audience.