Social Media: The Reality Show Starring You

with Fabiola Larios, Gremlin, and Vivian Fu ✨

Dec 01, 2022

Fabiola Larios, Gremlin, and Vivian Fu are featured on this week's episode of Nicstalgia. We talk about making a critical statement through subversive glitter art, Dollz, cute internet sounds (what glitter sounds like), and early digital technology.

We dive deep on social media and identity, exploring how digital personas evolve, how social media became a romanticized performance, and the psyops behind manufactured illusions of vulnerability. Turns out, photo dumps, making songs in your bedroom, and crying on TikTok aren’t “authentic” after all. (Let it be known that Vivian started “dumpage theory”, dissecting performative ugliness online.)

We get into the psychology of the internet and optics of surveillance capitalism, looking at people as statistics in order to sell to them, and the lengths creators, influencers, and people with public-facing personalities on the internet will go to in order to be seen. We think about how to approach being online heuristically, where critical thinking, research, and media literacy help people discern what they see.

Whether you’re a creator or consumer of content, you’ll enjoy the candidness of our discourse around internalizing and rejecting the “influencer” moniker, having self-worth and acceptance as a creator, how to not care about algorithms, and dealing with the pressure of being ~always online~. Our heads are already in the future, thinking about how artificial intelligence (AI) impacts the creative process and how web3 will disrupt web2 economies of scale, aka. how musicians will make money from their work instead of the streaming/social platforms.

Watch/listen: YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts • Website

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🛼 Haven’t You Heard?!

My fav things from the internet rn:
Nicstalgia’s tagline “deep conversations about superficial things” came from the fact that I make something superficial unnecessarily (or…necessarily 😏) esoteric. The best example of this is Jennifer Lopez’s 2002 album, “This Is Me…Then”. I love this album title because to me, it represents the integration of past, present, and future versions of ourselves. Clearly JLo was on the same page, as she is releasing an album next year, “This Is Me…Now”. Her marrying ~~Ben Affleck~~ the King of Dunkin’ really is full-circle.

Christine McVie (née Perfect) of Fleetwood Mac has passed away at the age of 79. (Imagine being born with the last name Perfect??) I have huge nowstalgia for Fleetwood Mac – you’ll see me wearing a Rumours t-shirt in next week’s podcast episode – and Rolling Stone put together a list of 16 Essential Christine McVie Songs. My favorites are “You Make Loving Fun” (which was about her affair with FM’s lighting director. She told her then-husband it was about their dog 💀) and “Everywhere”, of course, the song that ✨sparkles✨

Teen Vogue “talked all things Y2K with campaign star Anajah Hamilton”, as Coach reissued their Demi bag in new colorways. As much as the article is fun, it’s a prime example of the ‘Y2K’ aesthetic misnomer. (THIS is Y2K.) Y2K ≠ the 2000s. Coach exemplifies the McBling aesthetic. (McBling gf 🤝 UrBling bf??) It’s what the Curly Girlies of the 90s (aka. Limited Too aesthetic) grew up to be in the 00s. Anyway!!! This is further proof we are living in three parallel universes: 2022, 2007, and 2003.

One of my favorite one-hit wonders, songs to sing in the car with friends, and general bangers of the 90s is Mark Morrison’s “Return of The Mack”. I loved how this article about was written, filled with funny little quips and details. No, they don’t make songs like this anymore. It’s supplementary to the 60 Songs That Explain The ‘90s podcast episode, a show which I also love. (Also, add him to the list of people I didn’t know were from the UK! Sorry Rick Astley, I should’ve known better!!)

💿 Hey Mr. DJ, put a [playlist] on

Playlist of the week:
I’m SO excited to finally share the playlist I have been listening to non-stop, truly, since the day after Thanksgiving (okay fine, earlier than that): The Longest Christmas Playlist Ever !!! 🎄🎅🎁❄️☃️⛷⛸🛷🤶☕️

Let me break it down, because this playlist has layers and hundreds of songs. You can sort and filter as you please, but note the songs are generally arranged by category and vibe: Pop (including 2000s bubblegum trash), Classic Christmas, Jazz, Emo, Moody Indie Pop, Acoustic, Full Albums, and Canciones de Navidad. Truly something for everyone. Nicstalgia Gift Guide and Christmas Movie List are coming next week!

🥁 That’s a Wrap

Spotify Wrapped is here, and guess what one of my top podcasts (as a listener) was – Nicstalgia!!! (My top one was Welcome to The OC, Bitches lol. Manifesting being on their show in 2023!) This is my first year getting Spotify Wrapped as a podcaster, so I wanted to reiterate my IG post and share some stats and highlights with you.

THANK YOU to everyone who watches and listens to the show, and thank you to my amazing guests. (Sorry re: tag limit!!! I love you all!!) I am so grateful for you and happy that we can have deep conversations about superficial things together 💖

On the most recent ep of Nicstalgia, we talk in depth about self expression, performance, and identity on the internet. My relationship to myself (and therefore social media, even as a ~very online~ person) has massively evolved this year.

I am so proud of myself for consistently playing, creating, and putting something out into the universe that I absolutely love doing. I attribute much of my personal growth to the fact that I am always having fun and letting my inner child (and teenager and college-aged self) go absolutely wild!!!

If Nicstalgia is in your Spotify Wrapped, please send me a screenshot. I would love to make you a custom collage!! Thanks again for listening 🛼❤️

Highlights:

1,387 minutes? 23 hours? This volume of content is more than 94% of other creators in my category. COME AGAIN???? That is obscene. Nicstalgia is a labor of love. I’m thoroughly enjoying the process and learning so much along the way.
*Pitbull voice* MS. WORLDWIDE!!!! 16 countries and 5 continents? So cool. I’ve had guests from 15+ states and 4 countries (and counting), which is also cool.
My listeners truly are adventurers. We talk often about the evolution of technology and emerging technology, and I’m super excited to have had some guests on the show in the web3 space. (Tasafila is building a creator platform, Tom is building a decentralized museum, Danielle is building a 90s nostalgia-inspired universe, and Fabiola, Gremlin, and Vivian are creatives exploring new mediums in tech, art, and music.)

If you have any ideas for future guests (yes, it can be you 👀), please get in touch!!

Listen on Spotify

🏆 Nicstalgia Trivia

Last Week’s Answer
I’m obsessed with the Grammy-nominated 2001 one-hit wonder “Hit 'Em up Style (Oops!)”, where the singer describes spending all of her cheating ex’s money. She is pictured above counting the profit she made off of selling his possessions at a tag sale. Making lemonade out of lemons, truly. (This is about to be my next performance at karaoke, complete with the scatting.) What is this singer’s name?

This is the one, the only Blu Cantrell. Now who wants to go do this song at karaoke??

Watch last week’s episode, Don't Mess With My Man with Nikki Pebbles, on YouTube!

Nicstalgia