Spotted: A new generation of influencer-obsessed elites in Gossip Girl 2.0
Freja Newman argues that the Gossip Girl fails to capture the complexity of living in an online world
After 8 years of silence, Gossip Girl returns, this time targeting the ever-scandalous lives of Gen Z’s high school elite. Set once again in ‘the city that never sleeps’ this series returns with all the guiltily addictive friendship, family, and relationship drama of the original, heightened, of course, by the atmosphere of luxurious parties and high-end fashion shows.
However, the influence of these economic elites extends far beyond the social hierarchies established through strategic lunchtime seating on the MMA steps. In this new generation, the characters must also exert their status in the transient realm of social media.
Instead of a boy from Brooklyn setting up a blog to, quite literally, write himself into the lives of the Upper East side, Gossip Girl resurfaces on an Instagram account run by an ensemble of fed-up teachers at Constance St Jude’s itching to reclaim student control and respect. Julien Calloway, a character one could parallel with Blake Lively’s Serena Van der Woodsen (or S), represents this discernible shift towards influencer culture as she navigates maintaining her own ‘authentic identity’ and relationships amongst the routine performativity of filtered Instagram posts and stories.
While the success of a rich, 17-year-old social media influencer managed by her friends seems like another absurd product of the show’s dramatized genre, in today’s digital climate, Julien’s life is actually reminiscent of the careers of Charli D’Amelio, Addison Rae and countless other fashion and make-up influencers and content creators.
An era of ‘platformisation’ has arisen since the end of the original Gossip Girl in 2012. Online, focus is placed on the individual, where consumers are encouraged to market and brand themselves whilst navigating the murky waters of social media platforms and their politics. Industries have been transformed as new careers dominate the online landscape.
As a testament to the power of these platforms to transform marketing (among other industries) HBOmax has even enabled audiences to not only follow gossip girl herself but also each of the much-loved characters on the show – bringing their characters to life…on Instagram.
An Instagram post from the central character in Gossip Girl 2.0, Julien Calloway. She takes a selfie in her school uniform with the caption “real ones only”.
In the mid-season finale, Julien’s PR representative (or rather her friend Luna La) organises a meeting with various representatives (at an expensive bar, of course) to show Julien’s father that her “brand can be a real and lucrative career.”
As Luna professionally points out:
“If you want a lifelong career, we need to remove you from the concept of time. Forget influence, you need importance. Which takes more than just daily displays of good taste.”
But Julien’s story isn’t a rarity. Thanks to growing online platforms, teenagers are commencing life-long careers from 17 or younger, accelerating their transition to adulthood. This reboot attempts to grapple with this growing marketisation of individuals’ sense of self. However, by encouraging audiences to relate to the character’s absurdly wealthy lifestyles, the show fails to speak to the complexities of this social dilemma, and only addresses the pressures of social media in a superficial way.
The Gossip Girl reboot uses the digital landscape to explore how - if at all - young adults succeed in maintaining a grasp of their identities while projecting false or obscured ones. In doing so, it speaks to the way in which young people, girls especially, are expected to be “real” but also perfect while doing it. As the show progresses, Julien’s need to maintain her digital facade even takes a toll on her emotions and relationships. While these personal effects may manifest on screen through pent up lies and schemes resulting in drawn-out public showdowns, the characters’ drama also speaks to the universal stress felt by social media users to maintain ‘the perfect life’ online.
Yes, trends where influencers post ‘Instagram vs Reality’ pictures exposing the ‘façades of perfection’ aren’t uncommon. However, the mental and social repercussions of affirmation culture continue to weigh down our generation. Julien may have removed her make-up, turned off her ring light for her Instagram live and claimed to be going “clean, free, effortlessly me,” but, as the show progresses, her insecurities and jealousies remain, complicating her relationships with her sister, ex-boyfriend and father (to name a few). Simply put, if the harm of social media is not addressed beyond an ironically inauthentic shift to a more authentic online brand, then the emotional effects of these pressures will continue to disrupt relationships, identity and future.
Amongst a plot line reeling with sexual scandal, identity crises and apathetic parental millionaires, this reboot (so far) ends with Julien sacrificing potential agency collabs to maintain digital transparency about her political beliefs (alongside some cheating and scandal). The classic ‘be true to you’ cliché remains at the forefront of the show.
However, trying to represent the negative aspects of online life for young people through the lives of wealthy teens, who realistically, will face little to no consequences for their actions, was always going to fall short. The beauty of the original GG was not that we could relate to their lives, but rather be entertained by the irrationality and impossibility of it all. By trying to translate this absurdity across into the reboot whilst also maintaining some semblance of ‘relatability’, the show fails in truly capturing the complexities of the commercialisation and performativity of social media. For how are we expected to feel sympathy for 14 to 17-year-olds complaining about the pressures of online life as they sip martinis in designer dresses at a bar on a school night?
Maybe the second half of the season will delve further into the nuances of navigating these platforms, or maybe it will quite literally remain a secret the show will and could never tell.