From MTV and TRL to TikTok, streamers, and influencer fatigue

I remember getting a satellite dish for the first time and being able to turn on the channel I always heard about. MTV.

Before that I had VH1, and VH1 felt like more of a straight progression of music videos, which was still very cool at the time. I honestly wish we still had that whole thing, but that is another subject for another day.

When I got MTV, I think that is when I started realizing what “famous” was. This person is a celebrity, so they are probably rich, they probably have a big mansion, they have a fan base, they make music. That was the vibe. It was the first time I really saw the celebrity world as a real category.

And MTV had this whole structure to it. TRL, Carson Daly, Lala Anthony, and other MTV VJs and hosts. The Top 10 countdown. I remember coming home from school and watching it. Music videos, the VMAs, even TMZ. Pop culture felt like a shared place people went.

Back then, it was like celebrities were the celebrities. The ones making the music, the ones in movies, the ones on the big stage. And the rest of the world was just the rest of the world. The 99 percent. Average people. You go to school, you get a job, maybe you go to college, you live a normal life.

Fame was a dream, but it was a quiet dream. You did not actually expect it.

Then over time, especially around the mid 2010s, you start getting these new platforms. Twitch showed up with live streaming, and it was this new form of media that was honestly addicting. I fell in love with it, not as a creator, but watching streamers. Even back then there were big streamers commanding an audience. Ten thousand people, chat flying, subs, donations, all of it. They were making money and they were a little bit famous.

But now it is not just Twitch. It is Twitch, Kick, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, all of it. Everybody can be a celebrity, and celebrities are basically born every night. TikTok can create a famous person overnight. TikTok can create a music career overnight.

And I do not even know where we are at with music anymore, because it all feels scattered.

Back in the day, culture felt like a pond. A huge pond. You could find what you liked in it. You could find smaller niches too, like creeks flowing off the pond. But it still felt connected. It was all in the same place.

Now it feels like ravines and cracks everywhere. There are so many streams you do not even know where to start. I do not know who is famous and who is not famous anymore because the network is so vast. It is like celebrity does not mean what it used to mean.

And to me, this is all mostly fine. It is not like I think it is evil. It is just exhausting. I have influencer fatigue. I am tired of everything being clickbait. Everything being optimized. Everything being a sales pitch.

I am trying to lay down at night and listen to a YouTube video about an interesting topic, and I get an ad thrown into the middle of it. Or five minutes of sponsor talk inside a twenty minute video. Maybe “sellout” is not even the right word, because it is just the air we breathe now. Monetization is the default setting.

And I think this stuff messes with kids, too. When we were younger, we all dreamed about being famous. Being in a band, being an actor, being on TV. But we also knew that it probably was not going to happen.

Now I think a lot of kids genuinely expect it. Like they are going to be a famous YouTuber, famous on TikTok, famous on Instagram. I do not mean that as a moral panic. It just feels a little sad, because it replaces real plans with a lottery ticket.

I think this connects back to why I started blogging again in 2026. I wanted something with more substance. Something I always enjoyed as a medium. Something quieter. A little more real.

I am not trying to rebuild the old world. I just want a place that still feels like it has water in it.