Why social media stars really, truly matter: An explainer for over-30s and E! Online

For the past two days, E! Online has been at war with a million irate teens. And as the battle winds up, we must conclude: The teens are winning. It all began in the wake of Aug 16’s Teen Choice Awards, when Seija Rankin -- a 30-something editor for the celebrity network -- published a tongue-in-cheek listicle that spent a lot of real estate hating on the social media stars at the show. Maybe Rankin was joking and her jokes were bad; maybe Rankin was serious. In either case, she appeared shocked to see awards for Vine, YouTube and Twitter celebs, and -- of several top social media stars -- wrote only, “who is this?”

Both the “unknown” luminaries and their fans were, suffice it to say, upset about the debacle: In the day after the post published, many of YouTube’s top stars tweeted their complaints -- to thousands of RTs from a peeved teen audience. But we will agree that the whole bizarre incident does seem amazingly emblematic of a major fault line in modern celebrity culture: Namely, despite overwhelming evidence that so-called “Internet talent” commands a massive and not-ephemeral following, cultural gatekeepers don’t want to allow these new celebrities in. In fact, they don’t want to acknowledge that social media celebrities might serve any sort of greater social function, besides perhaps amusing children.