You’re reading Infinite Scroll , Kyle Chayka’s weekly column on how technology shapes culture.

There are many ways to be big on social media, but they are not created equal. Maybe an account belongs to a popular brand or to a famous person, whose online following is preordained, no exertion required. Maybe one’s internet fame is homegrown and hard-won, the result of hustling for followers on a particular social network, the way Emily Mariko hit it big on TikTok, in 2021, building a viewership that has now reached twelve million with silent cooking videos of salmon rice bowls and the like. Maybe an account has attained digital renown as a source of trusted expertise in a given area, like that of the economic historian Adam Tooze, who has more than two hundred thousand followers on X—big

See Full Page