After Watching ‘The American Meme,’ You’ll Never Again Want To Be Internet Famous

The Federalist: You should definitely watch the Netflix original, “The American Meme,” but only if you want to witness one of the most depressing portrayals of social media culture you’ve ever seen.

The documentary follows the social media empires of Paris Hilton, Instagram stars Kirill Bichutsky and Josh Ostrovsky (aka TheFatJewish, or The Fat Jew), and Brittany Furlan, who rose to prominence on the now-archived Twitter offshoot, Vine.

Ostrovsky has 10.5 million followers on Instagram. Bichutsky, verified on IG as “slutwhisperer,” has 1.2 million; Hilton 10 million, and Furlan 2.4 million, with another nearly 330,000 on YouTube. Model Emily Ratajkowski and DJ Khaled were also interviewed; Ratajkowski has 21 million IG followers, Khaled 13.2 million.

The stories of these internet royals are marked by loneliness and a struggle against the image they’ve created for themselves. Hilton was the first of the “famous for being famous” species of modern celebrity.

“Kim Kardashian was Paris Hilton’s intern,” Ostrovsky explained. Paris set the standard for how to be famous in modern media, although not all of it was her choice. Although she was posing partially nude for photographers when she was barely legal, the release of her infamous sex tape was an accident.

“I was so embarrassed. I felt like everyone on the street was laughing at me,” she said, confessing she didn’t leave her house for months after its release. “I felt like I had lost part of my soul…I literally wanted to die at some point.”

The Phantom Clicks Eat Her Soul

Although her entire life is lived in the spotlight, Paris says she loves her fans. The first thing she does in the morning is check in on half a dozen different social media platforms. She says for her fans, “Watching me go through so much really made them be even stronger.”

“They genuinely love me,” she said.

Still, the fame gets to her. She says she hears camera clicks and flashes even when they’re not there. While she says she still has a “fear of missing out” on events, she’s grown tired of partying every night and prefers to stay home. Like Kirill, she wants a family and regrets not being able to have one by now. “I see my friends who are not in the industry and they now have two, three kids and they’re so happy,” she said.

She has 19 product lines and immense pop culture influence, yet she can’t escape her young, sexy socialite image. “I’m a 21 year old for the past two decades,” she admitted. “It’s all part of an image and a brand…it’s [the movie] ‘Groundhog Day.’”  MORE