..The sense that any existence is not really happening unless it is being self-documented in real time on the internet is hardly something limited to those with the bank balance to absorb a super yacht charter. But to describe the Rich Kids’ social media accounts as unusually infantilised would be hugely unfair to many of our even averagely clued-up toddlers, to whom this sort of behaviour might already appear excruciatingly babyish. They exhibit such a studiedly Millwallian attitude to being liked that one can only conclude how desperately they wish they were. Sometimes they upload their astronomical bar bills, or just photos of their actual money – lots of notes spread out on tables or beds in shots not believed to be an ironic homage to Tracey Emin’s I’ve Got It All (that one where the artist is gathering piles of cash to her vagina). I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to suggest that the Rich Kids haven’t got it all. In fact, after a romp through their carefully presented Christmas and New Year highlights, I have reached the point where I cannot even behold a single one of their images without imagining it captioned #ohgodisthisit? Advertisement Please don’t get me wrong. Having thought awfully long and terribly hard about it, I am erring on the side of thinking we should probably reserve just a shade more of our sympathies for the poor kids of Instagram – and indeed the poor kids of elsewhere. See also the sick kids, the hungry kids, the lonely kids – and in fact almost any human life form other than those who identify as one of the Rich Kids of Instagram. So yes, don’t let’s get too bogged down in suggesting that immense wealth is not freeing in the most vital ways. We can assume that the Rich Kids do not fret about being able to get an appointment with their GP, for instance, or being laid off on Christmas Day, or, you know, surviving. But the more one scrolls through the endlessly updated annals of high-net-worth individuals trying and utterly failing not to look gauche, the more it seems that their money is not especially liberating. It just seems to buy a new set of restrictions...
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 21:59:01 +0000