“Oscar and I will be eating off coordinating plates this morning,” says Becca Bloom cheerfully, the queen of #RichTok, a new social media phenomenon where individuals with staggering wealth choose to showcase their everyday lives. Oscar is her cat, and their typical menu includes salmon sashimi, tuna bone broth, soft-boiled quail eggs, salmon roe caviar, freeze-dried cod, edible flower garnishes, and a single blueberry, all served on Versace-decorated porcelain plates. The American Tiktoker of Chinese descent has amassed over 4 million followers in just a few months, with her videos racking up millions of views. Unlike the now-outdated ‘flexing’ trend that often featured showing off how to make easy money, the niche of #RichTok—a hashtag with over 90 million posts on TikTok and 5,000 on Instagram—focuses on simply displaying the lives of the genuinely rich, ‘perhaps’ inspiring beauty. This is a world apart from the numerous wealthy, or self-proclaimed such, who flaunt their riches by perhaps waving around cash or filming themselves in ultra-expensive cars. Mrs. Bloom is genuinely and historically wealthy. Recently included in the Times’ 100 Best Creators List, she is a university graduate, works as a top manager in finance, and also directs tutoring programs for students in China. Her success is spawning countless ‘imitations,’ a large global fan club, and a trend whose primary slogan is ‘the habits of the super-rich that make me feel like a millionaire,’ encouraging people to surround themselves with beauty, even if on a lesser scale. “Bloom is capable of unboxing—that is, unpacking products and documenting it on video—with items worth thousands of euros from Hermes, just like ordinary mortals do with purchases from Shein,” comments Sara Martina Strazzer, an entrepreneur and influencer with @successodigitaleconsara, in a video dedicated to the recent phenomenon. “This manner, however genuine and even self-ironic, generates on one hand admiration and a desire to live that way, and on the other, strong criticism and debates which on social media are also the secret to success.”
© Copyright ANSA – All rights reserved