TikTok has been locked in a fierce debate.
A user named Bridget, who goes by the handle @martinifeeny on the app, accidentally sparked a heated discussion with the words, “All right, guys, I’m just gonna say it, I hate all of the New York influencers.”
In the video posted March 7, Bridget—who had less than 100 followers when she first shared the video—expressed her thoughts about many of the popular influencers dominating TikTok and Instagram.
“They’re all boring as f–k and they’re all carbon copies of one another,” she said in the video. “They all wear the same exact f–king bracelet. They all have the same exact f–king hand chain that someone else influenced them to get.”
She captioned the post, “Im[sic] SOOO bored by all these influencers lol.”
The post soon, as they say, blew up—garnering over 2 million views and a debate 4,000 comments long—before it spawned a larger conversation across the app.
Among those agreeing with Bridget was one user who wrote in the comment section, “Influencer culture in NYC makes zero sense because part of what makes NYC cool is the authenticity and individuality. Having so many carbon copies is phony.”
It also wasn’t long before the aforementioned New York City influencers—none of whom were named in the video—caught wind of the viral moment, including Brigette Pheloung, whose since-deleted stitch of Bridget’s video mocked some of the original criticisms.
Brigette—a 27-year-old who runs the account Acquired Style—is just one of a few N.Y.C. influencers believed to be referenced in the video, others being her twin sister Danielle Pheloung, 24-year-old Halley Kate and 25-year-old Kit Keenan, who previously appeared on Matt James’ season of The Bachelor and is the daughter of designer Cynthia Rowley.
But despite Bridget telling Vulture of her video, “I didn’t think anyone would give a damn,” users have, in fact, given a damn in a debate that has taken over the app.
Central to the conversation has been how much the types of content users consume is affected by who they’re consuming it from, as well as what kinds of content platforms prioritize.
Take user Sarah Torkornoo’s side of things, who, as a native New Yorker, agreed N.Y.C. influencers “are boring.”
“This is primarily because none of the mainstream N.Y.C. influencers are native New Yorkers,” she said in her March 12 video. “It’s very rare that I meet a boring native New Yorker. I’m biased, but it’s true.”
Sarah—whose platform uses the handle @sarahfromnewyork—continued, “And with peace and love … what do you expect when you consistently platform a bunch of upper middle class and wealthy suburban white women?”
The sentiment rang true within the comments of Bridget’s original video.
“The real nyc influencers are the artists, small musicians, baristas, painters, small designers, bartenders, servers, dog walkers, actors etc,” one user wrote, while another succinctly added, “Stop following only white ppl hope that helps lol.”
Photographer Olivia Joan also weighed in, sharing an experience with an unnamed NYC influencer who made her cry at a brand dinner.
“I kind of like the conversation that’s being had about influencers, especially the New York City influencers,” Olivia said, “and how people are kind of waking up and realizing that they’re kind of all frauds.”
