How Crochet Replaced Celebrities

the death of the mainstream and rise of the niche

“Get a hobby” — one of my favourite insults, backhanded advice that implies your life lacks substance. It is true though, we all need hobbies, an activity or two that isn’t linked to the dreaded “value add” and hustle culture that plagues our capitalist existence.

With the creation of the ‘For You’ page and other social media algorithms, finding a community of like-minded hobbyists is now easier than ever. Everything we consume online tailored and customised, our online personas an amalgamation of multiple subcultures that pique our interest.

But where does that leave the mainstream, a collective interest that appeals universally—does it even still exist?

The Death of Celebrity

Long-standing arguments have been made that the decline in celebrity is attributed to their lack of relatability, but I'd argue it's at least in part due to the growing irrelevance of the mainstream.

If we look back at the early 2000s, the status of celebrity was built upon two primary pillars:

1. Awards Shows

2. Gossip Magazines

Oxford Dictionary

Celebrity: The state or fact of being well known, widely discussed, or publicly esteemed. Later usually: personal fame or renown as manifested in (and determined by) public interest and media attention.

Award shows have long been the status symbol of celebrity, the invite list a marker of their letter grade. But with viewership of award shows hitting record lows, the Oscars not even reaching a quarter of the viewership it achieved in 1998, attending an award show no longer fits the definition of celebrity. It’s no longer of public interest if no one’s watching.

Gossip magazines and paparazzi shots have followed a similar trajectory, with the top three celebrity gossip magazines’ readership in the UK dropping 33% year on year in 2019. It would be remiss to ignore the other contributing factors to this decline, such as online accounts like Deuxmoi growing in popularity, and the shift in public perception surrounding the damaging effects of media harassment. But the attention from the public is waning, as our attention is held by the online microspheres we orbit, spoon-fed content from algorithms designed to keep us endlessly scrolling.

The Rise of the Micro-Celebrity

The pandemic spurred a surge in arts and craft hobbies, with web searches increasing by 63% in the early half of 2020. I’ll admit I wasn’t one of them, I was firmly in the baking sourdough camp, but admired from afar amongst my bags of flour.

While my sourdough starter died from neglect years ago, the trend in crafting appears to have continued on post-pandemic, especially online, with the #knittok garnering over 1.1 billion views.

With the definition no longer aligning with mainstream celebrities, who we now define as a celebrity is rapidly evolving. Micro celebrities have stepped up to fill this gap in the market, and can be loosely defined as someone of fame and notoriety in a particular niche or online community.

These niche communities online have not only brought back dying arts and crafts typically associated with the older generation, they’ve evolved into their own self-governing ecosystems with microinfluencers and scandals unfolding within their own little microcosms. This was recently evidenced by the crochet community, with videos discussing drama over a star blanket pattern reaching over 500k views.

@mrsmoonheaventhese r my opinions but if youd like to see from the sources yourself: @knottybreecrochet🇵🇸🇨🇩🇸🇩 and @Betty McKnit | 6-Day Crochet i hope we do better everyone!!! cmon now #6daystarblanket #crochet #crochetersoftiktok

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Niched into Oblivion

Being in a niche or subculture is a bit like the matrix in that you don't quite realise it's a niche until you talk to the people in your life, and they have no idea what you're on about. Our algorithms are so intune with the slightest deviations in our interests or new discoveries that we get served content surrounding that new interest nonstop, so it feels as if everyone else must be too.

It can make small talk hard, as the pool of universal topics of discussion continues to shrink, but perhaps it presents another opportunity for evolution.

Till next time xx